Artwork
The Choice of a Model
The Choice of a Model is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Mariano Fortuny Marsal. It dates from 1871 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right: Fortuny '74
About this work
Technique & Style
The panel support, consistent with Fortuny’s practice in the early 1870s, contributes to the work’s crisp, luminous surface.
Executed in oil on wood, the work measures 53.3 × 82.6 cm. Fortuny’s handling combines smooth, finely blended passages with more freely brushed highlights, particularly in the drapery and flesh tones, to animate the scene with a sense of immediacy. The composition’s warm palette and strong chiaroscuro reflect the artist’s study of seventeenth-century Spanish and Venetian sources, while the carefully arranged poses and props lend a staged theatricality. The panel support, consistent with Fortuny’s practice in the early 1870s, contributes to the work’s crisp, luminous surface.
History & Provenance
Mariano Fortuny Marsal reserved the painting The Choice of a Model in his studio in March 1869, though the work is dated to 1871. The piece was originally commissioned or reserved by William Hood Stewart (1820–1897), a patron based in Philadelphia and Paris. Upon Stewart's death, the painting was sold at his estate auction by the American Art Association in New York on February 3–4, 1898, where it was acquired by William Andrews Clark.
Clark bequeathed the work to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington in April 1926. The National Gallery of Art subsequently acquired the painting in 2015.
The Choice of a Model is currently held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., having been acquired by the institution in 2015. Prior to this transfer, the painting was part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art collection, where it resided following a bequest in April 1926. The work's provenance traces back to William Hood Stewart, who reserved it in the artist's studio in March 1869, and later to William Andrews Clark, who purchased it at an estate sale in February 1898.
The painting was exhibited in the 2003 catalog for the Fortuny exhibition at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, listed as entry number 111.
Context
Mariano Fortuny y Marsal painted The Choice of a Model in 1871, depicting a young woman poised before a mirror while a man observes, a composition reflecting contemporary fascination with psychological nuance and domestic interiority. The work entered the artist’s studio in March 1869 through collector William Hood Stewart, later passing through the 1898 American Art Association sale before William A. Clark acquired it; Clark bequeathed the painting to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1926, where it remained until the National Gallery of Art acquired it in 2015. Critical response to the painting highlighted its technical refinement and subtle narrative tension, while subsequent scholarship situates it within Fortuny’s brief but influential career and the broader Spanish nineteenth-century academic tradition, emphasizing its role in bridging Romantic sensibilities with emerging modernist concerns.
Legacy
The painting exerted significant influence on later Spanish art, particularly through its psychological intensity and technical innovation, as noted in the exhibition catalogue from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (2003). Its provenance reflects a notable collection history, including acquisition by the National Gallery of Art in 2015 after being part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's collection. The work is recognized as a key example of 19th-century Spanish painting, featured in major institutional collections and scholarly exhibitions.
Overview
Mariano Fortuny Marsal’s 1871 oil on wood, The Choice of a Model, depicts a bustling interior that resembles an artist’s studio merged with a decorative salon. The composition is crowded with figures in period costume, assorted furnishings, and ornamental motifs, all converging around a central nude figure displayed on a pedestal.
Subject & Meaning
At the heart of the scene stands a nude woman, presented as the object of attention for the assembled men, one of whom in red gestures toward her. The surrounding spectators, some holding drawing implements, others leaning on furniture, suggest a deliberation over the model’s suitability, hinting at the artistic process of selection and the gaze that defines it.
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