Since mid-19th century, Mariano Fortuny Marsal (1838-1874) plays a key role in the renewal of the Spanish painting, adding a new professional spirit achieved after his work as an illustrator of the war campaigns in Morocco –where Francisco Lameyer also took part in- and providing a new colourful sense that would definitely break the prevailing academic moulds.

Due to his activity in Africa, his work developes a noticeable eastern sense that would perfectly connect with the middle-class tastes of that period, studying in depth the plein air painting style through an exercise of quick and daily practice which exceeded the French tradition of the tableutin painting and the Spanish casacones painting, hence connecting with the new

wave that was growing in Rome, the capital of European art from 1870 onwards.Rome and Paris are the main cities where Fortuny developes his work, though he also moved to Granada, Seville and Portici (Naples). It is there where he falls ill and dies afterwards in Rome, leaving several disciples behind, such as his son Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871-1949), and painter friends like Martín Rico or Joaquín Agrasot.

The Fine Arts Museum of Córdoba owns six masterpieces of Fortuny included in the Museum’s artwork paper collections. As part of the Ángel Avilés collection, two of them arrived in 1923, and the remaining four were donated by Fortuny’s daughter-in-law Henriette Negrín Fortuny in 1954 to fulfill her testamentary will. These ones show the characteristic red stamp that confirms his authorship. Along with them and commemorating his 175th birth anniversary, the Museum is exhibiting the best

drawings and watercolour paintings of contemporary artists, an Homage Album published in Barcelona in 1880 by Sanpere i Miquel and a piece of fabric belonging to the clothes that decorated the Córdoba Pavillion at the Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville (1929). A few years ago it was also decorating some walls of this Museum and the Julio Romero de Torres Museum.

Authors list:Mariano Fortuny y MarsalMartín RicoFrancisco LameyerEduardo RosalesFrancisco PradillaJosé Villegas CorderoNicolás MegíaManuel ArtalTomás Martín RebolloJoaquín SorollaJosé HughetGabriel Puig-RodaBernardo RicoÁngel AvilésJosé Casado del AlisalManuel García Martínez, el HispaletoRafael Romero de TorresEnrique Romero de TorresJulio Romero de Torres

FORTUNY MARSAL, Mariano, Árabe. h. 1860 - 1865

FORTUNY MARSAL, Mariano, Señora de Agrasot. h. 1874

Traducción: Raquel Gutiérrez