1838 -1874 · Morocco, light and modern virtuosity

Marià Fortuny crosses battle, bullfight, garden, music and family intimacy with the same acuity: drawing orders the world while light releases the touch.

Born in Reus in 1838 into a modest family, Marià Fortuny I Marsal lost his parents early and was raised by his grandfather, a sculptor and craftsman. Trained at the Llotja School in Barcelona, he developed an exceptional mastery of drawing. A pension for Rome opened the Italian collections for him, then the African War changed his painting. Sent to Morocco by the Deputation of Barcelona in 1860, he directly observed the Battle of Wad-Rass and filled notebooks, watercolors and figure studies. The major project of The Battle of Tetouan remained unfinished, but the experience lastingly transformed its color. In Madrid, Fortuny copied Goya, Velazquez and Ribera; Fantasy on Faust, painted in 1866 after a pianistic interpretation by Juan Bautista Pujol, mixes real studio and operatic vision. His international success became immense in the Paris of the Second Empire, where his precious little paintings were sought after by collectors. However, his most modern works are often born far from worldly virtuosity: Old Man Naked in the Sun transforms flesh into colorful vibration; the Hollyhocks, the Granada garden and Portici beach explore the open air; The Painter's Children in the Japanese Room brings together family, collection and privacy. Queen Maria Cristina playing drums, Wad-Rass, bullfighting and chicken coop finally show that history how everyday life can be captured by a precise, rapid and luminous touch. His death in Rome in 1874, at the age of thirty-six, interrupted one of the most influential careers of the Spanish 19th century. The "Marià Fortuny" selection notably compares Queen Maria Cristina and her daughter Isabel II reviewing the artillery batteries defending Madrid in 1837 and The Battle of Wad-Rass. His reading favors movement.

Fortuny can paint a battle or a flower with the same intensity: what interests him is not the hierarchy of the subject, but the accuracy of the light.