MARIANO FORTUNY MARSAL (Reus, Tarragona, 1838... Lot 20

MARIANO FORTUNY MARSAL (Reus, Tarragona, 1838 - Rome, 1874). "Velázquez", 1859, Rome. Watercolour on paper. Signed, dated and located in the lower left corner. Provenance: - Attilio Simonetti Collection, Rome. - Gossi Collection, Rome. - Simonetti Collection, Rome. - Nuria Lamaro Collection, Rome. Bibliography: - González López, C.- Martí Ayxelá, M., "Mariano Fortuny Marsal (1836-1874)", Edicions Catalanes, Barcelona, 1989, vol. II, p. 24, Code CP0.01.59. Size: 14 x 9 cm; 35 x 30 cm (frame). Throughout his career as an artist, Fortuny was deeply interested in the paintings of the great masters of the most important international art galleries. Velázquez, Goya, Raphael, Dürer, Tintoretto and El Greco, among many others, were some of the artists whose works Fortuny copied. He used both oil and watercolour, a technique that allowed him a more direct approach and immediate resolution. In this portrait Fortuny copies the portrait by Velázquez in the Valencia Museum, which he was able to see through an engraving. Fortuny began his training at the Municipal School of Art in Reus, and in 1850 he moved to Barcelona with his grandfather. There he continued his studies as a disciple of Domingo Talarn and enrolled at the School of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Pablo Milá, Claudio Lorenzale and Luis Rigalt. At the same time he attended Lorenzale's public school, which determined his inclination towards Romantic painting at this early stage. In 1858 he settled in Rome thanks to a scholarship, and attended the Accademia Chigi. While there, the Diputació de Barcelona invited him to travel to Morocco to paint the warlike encounters that were taking place in the area, which was to be a turning point in his career. The light of Morocco and the exoticism of the place and its people led him to take an interest in aspects totally unknown in his previous production. In 1860 he visited Madrid, where he visited the Prado Museum and became interested in the work of Velázquez and Goya. Shortly afterwards he began a trip around Europe and finally returned to Rome for good. He attended classes at the French Academy of Fine Arts at the Villa Medici, and in 1861 he visited Florence and came into contact with the "macchiaioli". He returned to Morocco in 1862 and devoted himself to painting genre scenes in which he captured movement through colour and light. Back in Rome, he continued to focus on Orientalist themes. Shortly afterwards he travelled to Paris and met Adolphe Goupil, who became his dealer in 1866. That same year he visited Madrid again and visited Toledo, where he discovered El Greco. In 1867 he exhibited in the studio of Federico de Madrazo, who became his father-in-law that same year. The following year he returned to Rome, and in 1870 his international fame was consolidated thanks to his exhibition at the Parisian gallery of Goupil. During these years he settled in Granada, in the Fonda de los Siete Suelos de la Alambra, with the idea of tackling new themes with the greater freedom that commercial and critical success gave him. However, in 1872 he was forced to return to Rome, where he remained until his death. Mariano Fortuny is represented in the Prado Museum, the National Gallery in London, the Hispanic Society Museum in New York, the Palazzo Ruspoli in Rome, the Fine Arts Museums of Bilbao, San Francisco, Cincinnati and Boston and the National Art Museum of Catalonia, among many others.