The Choice of a Model

The Choice of a Model, painted in 1871 on panel and formerly in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., depicts an artist in an eighteenth-century interior selecting a model for a painting session — a subject that allowed Fortuny to display his dual mastery of the fashionable Rococo revival and acute observation of the artistic process itself. By 1871 Fortuny was the most sought-after Spanish painter in Europe; his small, brilliantly executed cabinet pictures commanded extraordinary prices from international collectors. The Rococo interior setting — panelled walls, brocade chairs, figures in powdered wigs and silk — reflects the period's intense nostalgia for the elegance of the ancien régime, a market Fortuny essentially created and dominated through technical virtuosity and an eye for decorative detail. The Corcoran Collection's acquisition of this work reflected American Gilded Age collecting of the era's most prestigious European painters.

Panel support suited to Fortuny's miniaturist precision. His technique here is fully mature: vigorous, confident brushwork that reads as spontaneous from a distance but rewards microscopic examination with precise mark-making. The Rococo interior's brocades, parquet floors, and gilt mouldings each receive distinct surface treatment. Light flooding from a single direction unifies the composed scene.