Biography
Mariano Fortuny i Marsal was one of the Spanish artists who most strongly influenced painting from the death of Goya to the beginning of the twentieth century. Born into a family of artisanal tradition, he was orphaned at a very young age and was raised by his grandfather, who recognised his artistic predisposition and encouraged the development of his technical and manual skills from childhood.
His academic training began at the Municipal Art School in Reus, where the painter Domènec Soberano (1825–1909) introduced him to the world of lithography. With his fellow student Josep Tapiró (1836–1913), he approached landscape painting and came into contact with Nazarene pictorial compositions, interests he would develop further during his stay in Barcelona, where he moved in the early 1850s. Once there, he entered the studio of the sculptor Domènec Talarn (1812–1902).
He also gained admission to the La Llotja School of Fine Arts. At this time, the rigid drawing of figures and the Romantic tendency in his work testify to the influence of his teachers Pablo Milà (1810–1883) and Claudi Lorenzale (1814–1889). With Luis Rigalt (1814–1894), on the other hand, he further developed his interest in landscape painting, which he had already explored more freely in his native city.
In this first stage of his artistic production, the personality of a multifaceted artist is already apparent: a master of a wide range of stylistic orientations and capable of excelling in numerous techniques. In 1858 Fortuny entered the Chigi Academy in Rome and devoted himself to the study and drawing of life models. The evolution of his innovative style and his firm mastery of technique are visible above all in his drawing, which became increasingly refined and precise.
Two years later, the Barcelona Provincial Council commissioned him to produce several works for the Saló de Sessions, depicting the main events of the Hispano-Moroccan War. In order to execute this commission with greater realism, the artist travelled to Morocco to study the settings and make sketches from life. This experience, which brought him into contact with extreme circumstances such as war and death, profoundly marked his way of observing and transformed him into a mature artist.
In Morocco, Fortuny discovered aspects entirely unknown in relation to his earlier production, which would decisively influence his later work. The Oriental landscape and African light brought about an important change in his way of representing reality. The attention to drawing that had characterised the master remained present, but it moved into the background in favour of an interest in luminism and atmosphere.
A powerful light became the principal protagonist of his works, now characterised by rapid, sketch-like brushwork, strong chiaroscuro and a vivid palette. This new style, close to Impressionism, led Fortuny to be regarded as the creator of luminism in Spain. After his first journey to Morocco, the artist spent a period travelling through Europe, visiting the museums of major artistic cities such as Madrid, Paris and Rome.
In the French capital he witnessed the renewal of etching, a technique he began to develop from that time onwards, becoming one of its leading Spanish representatives. Between 1863 and 1868 he moved between Spain and Italy, devoting himself to working from life. In particular, he visited Naples to study the work of Domenico Morelli (1823–1901) and Filippo Pallizzi (1818–1899), and Florence, where he may have come into contact with the Macchiaioli.
He travelled to Morocco on other occasions, approaching genre subjects and architectural motifs from the Arab world, which he treated with the Orientalist sensibility that became fashionable throughout Europe. His compositions show greater attention to geometric order; the lines of shadow and contrast suggest the differences between the various planes of depth.
Little by little, the prominence of drawing and the meticulousness of his early period gave way to a more fluid and sketch-like handling, in which luminism reveals his study from life and his desire to capture the atmosphere and reproduce it faithfully, a tendency connected with the discovery of photography.
In the final years of his brief life, when his fame was already firmly established, the artist moved to Granada and travelled again to Paris, Portici and Rome, where he died of a stomach ulcer in November 1874, at the age of only thirty-six.