Art Of The Day Weekly

The wheels of Fortuny

MADRID – Whether you refer to the son, Mariano (1871-1949), or to the father, Mariano (1838-1874), it is easy to get confused with the Fortuny family. As a matter of fact, the best known is the son, the refined and multi-lingual couturier who set up in a Venetian palace. An exhibition dedicated to him in Paris, at the Palais Galliera, just closed last month to reveal his art to those who still did not know it. While the father was extremely famous in the 19th century, for he had the same worldly characteristics, he did not age well. This is reason enough to visit the Prado and the detailed description of his itinerary. The man was a gifted drawer, and trained on the battlefields of the war in Spanish Morocco. He made a reputation and a name for himself in France, greatly supported by enthusiastic critics, such as Théophile Gautier. He rubbed elbows with the high society, such as the duke of Riánsares in Paris for whom he painted a military parade on a 15 sq. meter ceiling (the painting is now in the Prado), or countess Colonna in Rome who opened her palace to him at leisure. But he also knew how to preserve the loyalty of certain amateurs, such as collector William H. Stewart. Everyone loved his genre scenes, his Orientalist compositions, his views of Andalusian gardens, and his historical reconstitutions of the precious 18th century. This chronological exhibition, which ends with his own cabinet de curiosités (he was a great collector), allows the viewer to appreciate his great talent when painting with watercolors. As he grew older, he experienced style that was less constrained and more vibrant when he painted with his friends on the Roman coast. But he was swept away by an ulcer at the age of 36.
• Fortuny at the Prado museum, until 18 March 2018.

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