Alfred Paul Victor Morel Fatio

Alfred Paul Victor Morel Fatio was a distinguished French scholar and naval historian whose expertise in Spanish colonial history and maritime documentation gave him a particular affinity with the Hispanic Society of America's mission. Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta painted him in 1911, late in the artist's long career, for the Hispanic Society's portrait collection — a series of works documenting figures associated with Spanish culture and scholarship. By 1911 Raimundo was in his late sixties, living primarily in Paris, but still producing accomplished portrait work. The Hispanic Society commission placed this portrait within the institution that Archer Milton Huntington was building as a monument to Spanish culture in New York, alongside works by Sorolla and other masters. The portrait documents the scholarly community that surrounded the Society's early years.

Late career portraiture by Raimundo shows the technical confidence of decades of practice — a sure, economical approach that achieves likeness through a relatively small number of well-placed decisions rather than labored detail. The palette is the muted, silvery range characteristic of his mature French-influenced work.