The Choice of a Model

Mariano Fortuny Marsal

National Gallery of Art

A group of eight men looking at a nude woman posing on a marble tabletop stand in a pink room with shiny gold furniture and fittings, with multicolored marble columns leading to a space filled with paintings and sculpture in this horizontal painting. The woman and most of the men have pale, peachy skin while a couple of the men appear to have darker, olive-toned skin. To our left, the men wear tight-fitting jackets and stockings in tones of rose pink, shimmering gray, royal or powder blue, flamingo pink, caramel brown, scarlet red, black, or white. Their hair is coiffed with puffs, rolled curls, and ponytails. Many hold gold-tipped walking sticks or canes, and a few hold black hats tucked under one elbow. They lean forward or back, or tip their heads together as they gaze at the nude woman. The faces and clothing of the men are painted with short dashes and touches of paint, creating the impression of a rough texture. One more man, in silver gray, leans over the large table on which the woman stands, to our right, and seems to study her feet. The woman poses with her back to us, most of her weight on her left leg so that hip angles up. She raises both arms so her left breast is outlined against the pink wall, and she looks down toward the men from over her left shoulder. A flower is tucked into blond hair piled on her head. She has a straight nose and apple-red lips. Her skin is painted smoothly with more blended brushstrokes. A white drapery covers her feet, and a pile of patterned fabric in turquoise, petal pink, black, and topaz blue, presumably clothing, is heaped on a stool next to the table, near a pair of heeled slippers. The base of the table is made from glimmering gold to look like muscular, nude men supporting the round, pine-green marble top on their shoulders and backs. The room has rose-pink walls above a wide band of ivory-white molding, with sapphire-blue and emerald-green paneling below. A gold-framed mirror, half again the height of the woman, hangs on the wall behind her, to our right. Pearl-white and pale moss-green columns flank the entrance to a room beyond the men, to our left. The ceiling of that room is painted loosely with azure blue, platinum gray, and touches of tomato red. Paintings and statues line the walls. The men and furniture reflect in the shiny white floor. The painting is signed at dated in the lower right corner: “Fortuny ‘74.”