Mariano Fortuny, The Beach at Portici

"Beach at Portici" by Mariano Fortuny

"To the Baron Davillier from Mariano Fortuny:

'My Dear Friend, I regret much to learn that you have been suffering, and that I have not been in Paris to keep you company. I could at least distract you by prattling about old curiosities. On the subject of my works, I will speak only of my picture which is 1 metre, 37 centimetres long by 0m 72 high. There are women on the grass, bathers who are taking headers into the waves, the ruins of an old castle, the walls of a garden, the entrance into a village, etc., etc. All that in bright sunlight, not a single ray omitted. Everything is fair and gay, and how could it be otherwise, since we have so happily passed our summer. My picture is not yet finished. It wants a month's work yet.

I have commenced another, a smaller one with portraits of my two children, and besides a number of detached sketches, as well as two aquarelles - one tolerable, the other bad. I have in view several other things. As to business matters, my prospects look well. I am already offered 75,000 francs for the picture of 'The Beach at Portici.' There are two bidders. One of them is here from Paris, and the other has written to me [from America].'"

Recently Fortuny's "Beach at Portici" was acquired by the Meadows Museum in Dallas on January 19, 2018, which gives the picture's history after the artist's death. "In the artist's possession at the time of his death, 'Beach at Portici' was acquired by the prominent New York collector Alexander Turney Stewart in 1875, and remained with Stewart's heirs on the East Coast until the Meadows acquired it. From June 24 through September 23, it is the subject of a focused exhibition, "At the Beach: Mariano Fortuny y Marsal and William Merritt Chase,' where it will be paired with Chase's 'Idle Hours.' Chase knew Fortuny's work well and greatly admired it." 

To be continued

(Excerpted from "Life of Fortuny with His Works and Correspondence" by Charles Davillier, 1885.)