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Shortly before Mariano Fortuny concluded the second year of the pension he had received from the Regional Government of Barcelona in 1858 to complete his studies in Rome, that same institution commissioned him, on January 10, 1860, to travel to Morocco as a graphic reporter of the African War. There, Spanish troops were fighting in the northern Maghreb -especially the battalion of Catalan voluntee
Fortuny produces a faithful interpretation of Jusepe de Ribera’s painting in the Museo del Prado, though his attention is focused exclusively on capturing the effects of the light on an elderly man’s naked torso and he dispenses with the saint’s iconographic attributes. He thus attaches greater importance to the human figure, as in his later studies of old men made in Granada.
This canvas was displayed on the ceiling of the Salon Rouge of the Duke and Duchess of Riánsares’ Paris mansion. The decoration of this hall, which was designed to receive visitors, glorified María Cristina’s regency and the legitimacy of her daughter Isabella II, which was opposed by the supporters of Carlos María Isidro de Borbón, rival aspirant to the throne. The wor
In this work, Fortuny establishes an eloquent link between painting and music and a clear exposition of what his friend, the Baron Davillier, called his very lively and very pure taste in music. Fortuny depicts one of the musical evenings that he attended in Madrid during the summer of 1866 at his friend and former classmate, Catalan painter Francisco Sans y Cabot’s studio at no. 13, calle Flor Ba
This work is an excellent example of the way in which an interest in the art of Spain´s Golden Age combines in Mariano Fortuny´s paintings with the close study of subjects made from life. Nude Old Man in the Sun reveals Fortuny´s familiarity with the work of Jusepe de Ribera, whose painting Saint Andrew (P1078) he had copied on a previous occasion. And as in that copy and others Fortuny made (such
The sketch, almost schematic character of this composition makes this one of the most attractive bullfighting scenes ever painted by Fortuny. It offers a panoramic view of a bullring -probably in Madrid- in which the powerful contrast of light between the part in the sun and the part in the shade is outstanding. The painter treats the hustle and bustle of the spectators as an undefined mass, with
Fortuny featured groups of hens in a number of his compositions, as their dynamism, texture and luxuriant colours enriched and enlivened his works. This painting, however, is a study in its own right -a free exercise designed to capture the birds’ light, fast movements rather than intended as a detail of a larger composition.
Fortuny enjoyed painting flowers in bloom in his scenes. Attracted by their colours, he also made separate studies of them. His favourites were hollyhocks on account of their pleasing hues and the elegant verticality of their stalks, which is accentuated by the format used here. As the background is devoid of references, their corollas appear to float in an indeterminate space, with varying degree
Fortuny’s predilection for beautifully colored and very carefully painted panels is perfectly exemplified by the present work, which reveals his mastery of tableautin, a type of painting that garnered considerable commercial success for artists such as Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), although the latter’s execution was much more meticulous and drawn. The Orientalist genre was also the ob
This work bears exceptional witness to the concurrence of Fortuny’s painting with that of his close friend, Raimundo de Madrazo. Begun by the former, it was completed after his death by the latter with a completely concordant style that does not, however, hide Madrazo’s own individuality. Fortuny had been living in Granada since the summer of 1870 and he spent the best days of his life there befor
Fortuny’s sudden death left this painting unfinished, yet it remains one of his finest pieces, and the maximum expression of the audacious pictorial modernity that characterizes his mature work.The two children that appear in this canvas are the artist’s own son and daughter, Mariano and María Luisa. They rest on the long divan in the Japanese Room at Villa Arata, the Fortuny family’s summe
This painting summarises many of Fortuny’s artistic concerns during his summer stay in Portici on the Neapolitan coast in a more complete manner than the other landscapes from this period in the Prado. It reveals his practice of working from life (here on the seashore for the first time), the use of pure colour, varied brushstrokes and the technique of leaving the preparation visible.
The Provincial Council of Barcelona sent Fortuny to Morocco to compile graphic information for subsequent paintings on the most notable achievements in the Spanish-Moroccan War, in which Catalan volunteer troops were fighting. In Morocco from February 1860, Fortuny followed the campaign, witnessing and subsequently painting The Battle of Wad-Ras. At the same time he was also notably attracted by l
Executed as an exercise in anatomy, this drawing dates from the end of the painter’s formative period in Rome and displays the firm, well-defined strokes of a more mature artist. The light, artificially dramatised, shapes the carefully moulded physique of the model, who has been identified as Arlecchino, the nickname given to Filippo Cuggini for his ability to reproduce puppet-like gestures when p
Fortuny was particularly interested in the human types who were part of Rome’s urban landscape. Prominent among them were these Capuchin friars dressed in the characteristic brown tunic and long cloak of their religious order, who carried a bucket and stick when begging for alms. The space is hinted at chiefly by the shadow cast on the wall and the ground by the figure, whose wiry hair is depicted
Fortuny made an ample number of copies of famous paintings, some as late as the end of the 1860s. They reveal his interest in deepening his knowledge of the painting of the great masters, especially Velázquez and Goya, and to a lesser extent, Raphael, Dürer, Tintoretto, El Greco, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck and Tiepolo, as well as Rembrandt and the Japanese engravers, all of whom had a fu
This watercolor offers a profile view -similar to a low relief- of a child or young faun sitting on a fragment of an Ionic entablature with egg-and-dart decorations above an astragal. The slender, nude child recalls the Italian boys who worked as models in academies and were depicted by European painters and sculptors. At the academies where he studied, Fortuny had drawn numerous nude boys, some p
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