Nude Boy on the Beach at Portici

Nude Boy on the Beach at Portici shows a child lying face down on the sand, his body carrying reflections that shift in tone from one area to the next. Fortuny painted it in the summer of 1874, while staying in this town near Naples, where he had settled in a villa overlooking the sea. After years of polished commissions that seem to have left him restless, he found in Portici a sense of freedom to paint as he pleased, drawn to the shifting light and colour over the water and to the children playing outdoors. The small panel grew out of that interest. The contrast within it is striking: the boy's body is rendered with a smooth, precise finish, while the sand is built up with quick, dense strokes, the dry paint rubbed over a white ground. The shadows on the skin are not simply grey but blue, green, pink or reddish, depending on the part of the body. The work points toward the naturalistic concerns of Fortuny's last years, yet it remains an intimate study, made without any thought of public display.

Painter

Mariano Fortuny Marsal

Date

1874

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

13 × 19 cm

Museum

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Genre

nude

Depicts

nudity, boy, bathing, beach

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