Fortuny's Garden
by FORTUNY Y MARSAL, Mariano, Oil on canvas, 40 x 27 cm
Fortuny espoused the Meissonier tradition of small-format genre pictures. His brushwork was more relaxed, and he aimed at a lightness of subject matter, rather than the evocative heaviness of the Spanish tradition. His technique was virtuoso, and he took delight in anecdotal detail. Fortuny’s paintings, splendid in colour and rich in light effects, were particularly successful in France in the 1870s.
Fascinated by light, Fortuny painted scenes of Seville, Portici and Granada - genre pictures, nudes, portraits and landscapes of an extraordinary luminous brilliance.