News regarding missing works by Fortuny

Abstract

The aim of this article is to track down a group of very notable works by the painter Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874) that have been lost for many years, some of which were decisive in forging the painter’s reputation. Our research has enabled us to piece together the history of certain works that exemplify the artist’s international reputation, especially in North America, and which were owned by a wealthy, bourgeois clientele. The digital resources that many institutions make available to researchers have greatly facilitated our work, giving access to many contemporary documents and catalogues that would once have been impossible to study without visiting each archive in person, particularly in Paris and America. Thanks to these tools, we have been able to identify the whereabouts of works that were missing or in unknown private collections, many of them almost since they left the painter’s workshop. The article also reveals the interest that Fortuny, undoubtedly one of the greatest European painters of his time, continues to arouse, as well as the historical vicissitudes of works that were acquired by some of the great collections of the time.