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A Portrait by Fortuny
LIKE Titian's "Man with a Glove," Fortuny's portrait of a Spanish lady will go down in history valued solely as a work of art, but with its subject unidentified. Produced when the artist was but twenty-four, and said to be the wife of a secretary of the Spanish embassy at Rome, it remains the only woman's portrait painted by him, and one of the very few figures of life size which he attempted. He began a portrait of Princess del Drago, daughter of Queen Christina, which was never completed, and in his "Spanish Marriage" appear Madame Fortuny and her sister, Isabel Madrazo. These, however, are but figures in a composition rather than portraits.
Coming from the sun-lands, and hence a lover of light and luxury, Fortuny most often showed himself a mere fantaisist. His brilliant interiors, dashed with color, are of a genre wholly his own, and as delightful as they are meaningless. Usually thin and wanting in sobriety, they possess style, it is true, but the style is more interesting than the matter. The elegance, accurate perception, and fastidious execution that characterize his work never fail to interest even those who look upon life with different eyes. Had he turned his attention to portraiture, his art would have been less exotic. In this single example he suggests the romance and mystery of life, rather than the glitter of the bazar. Wrought with his usual craftsmanship, he has at the same time caught glimpses of a human soul; and in showing that he was not insensible to the grave and poetic side of art, he has enlarged the world's estimate of his powers.
