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At the A. T. Stewart sale, in New York, the "Fortunys" brought higher prices than anything else in the collection, save, I believe, the "1807" of Meissonier. In fact, there are more "Fortunys" owned in New York than there are in either Barcelona or Madrid. Indeed, there is a marked similarity between the style of Fortuny and that of Meissonier.

And it was not so many moons after this little visit to Barcelona that wedding-bells were sent a-swing, and Mariano Fortuny was married to Cecilia, daughter of Federico Madrazo. Their honeymoon of a year was spent at the Alhambra Palace amid the scenes made famous by our own Washington Irving.

Fortuny set about the work as a duty to his patrons who had so generously paved the way for all the good fortune that was his. The painting was to be a world-beater; and Fortuny, young, strong, ambitious knowing no such word as fail went at the task.

He realized as nearly as possible the effect of sunlight that is to say, he did as well and no better in this respect than Fortuny had done but he created a much greater illusion of a sunlit landscape than anyone had ever done before him, by painting those parts of his picture not in sunlight with the exact truth that in painting objects in shadow the palette can compass. Nothing is more simple.

Grandfather Fortuny and the gentle old priest leaned out over the stone window-sill and laughed to see the boy scurry down the street. Then the priest went his way. Grandfather Fortuny waited, looking out of the window, for the boy to come back. The boy did not come. He waited. Lights began to flicker in the windows across the way. A big red star came up in the West. The wind blew fresh and cool.

Father Gonzales looked at Grandfather Fortuny, and Grandfather Fortuny looked at Father Gonzales; then they both burst out laughing. Mariano placed an extra plate on the table, and the three drew up chairs. Business was looking up with Grandfather Fortuny and Mariano. All the images they made were quickly taken.

In barbaric Africa, Fortuny entered into life with the same fine, free, eager, receptive spirit that he had elsewhere shown.

To know too much of what other men have said is death to a writer; for an artist to be too familiar with the best in art is to have inspiration ooze out at every pore. Fortuny took a week to think it over. He was not discouraged not he but he decided to postpone work on the masterpiece and busy himself for a while with simpler themes.

Had Regnault lived, he would have more adequately or should I say more plausibly? marked the transition from romanticism to realism. Temperamentally he was clearly a thorough romanticist far more so, for instance, than his friend Fortuny, whose intellectual reserve is always conspicuous. He essayed the most vehement kind of subjects, even in the classical field, where he treated them with truly romantic truculence. He was himself always, moreover, and ideally cared as little for nature as a fairy-story teller. In this sense he was more romantic than the romanticists. His "Automedon," his portrait of General Prim, even his "Salome," are wilful in a degree that is either superb or superficial, as one looks at them; but at any rate they are romantic

Here were pictures painted in an hour that outmatched any of the carefully worked out, methodical attempts of the Academy! It was all life, life, life palpitating life. The sketches were shown, the men in power interviewed, and the city of Barcelona ordered Fortuny to paint one large picture to be eventually placed in the Parliament House to commemorate the victory of General Prim.