Henhouse

Henhouse, 1864, canvas, Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltrú — this early work depicting a domestic farm scene is among the most unexpected subjects in Fortuny's oeuvre. At twenty-three, he was still establishing his distinctive style in Rome, and a henhouse subject represents an engagement with the tradition of Dutch and Flemish animal genre painting rather than his characteristic Orientalist or historicist production. The Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer, dedicated to the Catalan poet and politician Víctor Balaguer, holds several Fortuny works as part of its preservation of Catalan artistic heritage. The 1864 date connects this with his early Roman years when he was exploring a wider range of subjects before narrowing toward the Spanish-Orientalist cabinet pictures that would define his career.

Canvas with Fortuny's early technique exploring organic, animate subjects — feathers, combs, tethered movement of birds — that present different textural challenges from his costume and interior specialisms. Poultry subjects in the Dutch and Flemish tradition required attention to the specific quality of feather light-scattering and the animation of living creatures.