The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

One of the most celebrated artists of the 19th century, Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny y Carbó was renowned for his exceptional technical skill. Born in Reus, Catalonia, Fortuny demonstrated artistic talent early, earning a scholarship to study at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona. His breakthrough came after he traveled to Morocco in 1859 to document the Spanish-Moroccan War. The dramatic landscapes, unfamiliar culture, and vivid colors of North Africa provided him with the subject matter and vibrant palette of his most celebrated canvases. Fortuny was one of many 19th-century European artists fascinated with so-called Orientalist themes–depictions of the people and landscapes of Western Asia and North Africa. While many such artists reveled in the mysterious, sensual, and decadent stereotypes of their subjects, Fortuny displayed a more naturalistic approach. The sitter in this painting is thought to be a man named Farragi, one of the North African men who accompanied the artist on his first trip to Tangiers. An inscription in the upper left reads, “To my friend (a mi amigo)…” but unfortunately the name is illegible. Fortuny’s vibrant colors and vigorous brushstrokes in both the background and the sitter’s robe reveal his fascination with light and texture and anticipate both the techniques and the light-filled aesthetics of French Impressionism.