Askari

Askari, 1860, panel, Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltrú — this early Moroccan figure study was painted during or immediately after Fortuny's first visit to North Africa, when he accompanied Spanish forces as the official war artist for the Diputació de Barcelona. An askari was a local military auxiliary soldier in North African armies; the term was used across North Africa and the Middle East for indigenous soldiers serving colonial or semi-colonial military structures. At nineteen years old, Fortuny was making his first Moroccan drawings and studies, many of which fed directly into the enormous Batalla de Tetuán canvas. This early panel preserves his first encounter with North African military figures — the beginning of an engagement that would define his entire career. The Víctor Balaguer Museum's preservation of this early work documents the starting point of Fortuny's decisive Moroccan experience.

Panel with Fortuny's early technique: less polished than his mature works but already demonstrating the acute observation that would distinguish his career. Military costume and equipment — musket, sword, distinctive North African military dress — are recorded with documentary precision appropriate for an official war artist. The small panel format suggests rapid field study rather than studio composition.