Portrait of the Sculptor Jeroni Suñol

Portrait of the Sculptor Jeroni Suñol, 1864, canvas, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya — this portrait of the Catalan sculptor Jeroni Suñol (1840–1902) documents a meeting between two Barcelona-born artists working in Rome in the 1860s. Suñol would become one of the most important Spanish sculptors of the late nineteenth century, producing monumental public sculptures across Spain and Barcelona. The portrait thus records a friendship between two major Catalan artists at an early stage of both their careers. Fortuny's choice to paint a fellow artist rather than a wealthy collector as his subject reflects the intimacy of the Roman artistic community; artist portraits tend toward directness and informality compared to formal commissions. The MNAC's preservation of this canvas alongside other Fortuny works gives Barcelona a concentrated documentation of his personal connections as much as his public production.

Canvas with Fortuny's mid-1860s portrait technique: direct observation of the face, less formal arrangement than commissioned portraits, and attention to the sculptural sensibility of the sitter — a man who spent his days thinking in three dimensions. The portrait of an artist by an artist tends to produce works that privilege perception over polish.