Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, a universal genius

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Detail of a Delphos gown and silk velvet cloak, photo Mickey Riad

When as a young student in Madrid, Guillermo de Osma discovered Mariano Fortuny’s etchings in the Calcographia Nacional, he had no idea there had never been anything written on this Spanish genius of fashion and design who died in Venice in 1949. The “magician”, the “alchemist”, the “Renaissance man” as he was often called, remains a mystery to his biographers and the reedition of his book in English is a major coup.

Actress and singer Régine Flory wearing a Delphos gown, Paris 1910, photo Albert Harlingue/Roger-Viollet

Galerist and art historian Guillermo de Osma managed to meet Elsie Gozzi and Mariano and Cecilia de Madrazo, who opened Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, Fortuny’s home in Venice, for him. Tina Chow, a keen collector, Liselotte Höhs, and many musuem teams including that of Musée des Tissus et Arts décoratifs de Lyon.  A fashion designer and a set designer, Fortuny was also an inventor and he patented twenty inventions in Paris from the famous Delphos gown, his pleated silk dress which inspired Issey Miyake for his Pleats please collections, to the variation of electric lamps.

Lamps giving off indirect light created by Fortune, photo E.Momene

Painter turned couturier, he revolutionised fashion at the beginning of the 20 th century, creating a unique style immediately adopted by Parisians such as Comtesse Greffulhe, and an exhibition at Palais Galliera curated by Sophie Grossiord this fall, will illluminate his career.

The son of a well known painter who shared his time between Rome and Paris, he was born in Granada in Southern Spain in 1871 in a family surrounded by artists and inspired by the Arab world.

Desk lamp in metal and wood designed by Fortune in 1929, photo Claudio Franzini

After spending some time in Paris where he studied with Benjamin Constant, he was taken  to the ballets at an early age by Boldini and discovered the stage, heard Wagner in 1892, and eagerly adopted the movement of sympbolism, destroying barriers between literature, music and visual arts. … The family moved to Venice in 1889 where there was a colony of artists that includd Helleu, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Luigi Nono, José Maria Sert, Reynaldo Hahn…

The book written by Guillermo de Osma, is fascinating for it replaces Fortuny in a world of creativity where Proust and Wagner, among others… had an important part (Osma published a book on Fortuny and Proust): he was a photographer, a stage designer, a lamp manufacturer but will be mostly remembered as a couturier.

Natalia Vodianova wearing her own Delphos gown in the film “Belle du Seigneur”

The last chapter of the 337 page book (in its English version) is devoted to famous customers such as Lilian Gish, Isadora Duncan,  Elsie Gozzi, Lady Bonham Carter, Geraldine Chaplin and even Natalia Vodianova who are all wearing the Delphos gowns.  « When Susan Sontag died in 2004, her partner Annie Leibowitz dressed her in a Delphos gown for her burial » concludes Guillermo de Osma. His talent has survived the century.

Guillermo de Osma also runs a successful modern art gallery in Madrid

“Mariano Fortuny, his life and work”  is published by Editorial Nerea in San Sebastian, Rizzoli in the US and by the Victoria  and Albert museum in Great Britain.

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