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Fortunato Arriola

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Fortunato Arriola
Born1827
Cosalá, Sinaloa, Mexico
DiedAugust 15, 1872(1872-08-15) (aged 44–45)
at sea near Watling Island, Bahamas (now Bermuda)
Occupation(s)Painter, educator
Known forPortrait paintings, landscape paintings
MovementLuminism
SpouseYsabel "Elizabeth" Arzapalo (m. ?–1872; death)
Children8

Fortunato Arriola (1827–1872)[1] was a Mexican portraitist and landscape painter, of Spanish descent.[2] He is considered one of the pioneer artists of California,[3] and his work was popular in San Francisco, where he came to live in 1857.[4] Arriola primarily painted portraits, sunsets, and luminous tropical landscapes.

Early life and family

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Sunset on the Sacramento River, 1869, Cantor Art Center, Stanford University

Fortunato Arriola was born in 1827, Cosalá, Sinaloa, Mexico.[5] The son of a wealthy Spanish landowner.[6] He was well versed in literature, and was a self-taught artist.[5] He began his career painting portraits.[7] Arriola admired the landscape paintings by Frederic Edwin Church.[8]

Career

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His style was realistic, which he carried into his paintings of nature landscape scenes, for which he is most well-known. Contemporary critics especially praised Arriola’s paintings depicting moonlight and tropical scenes.[9] He had a studio near the corner of Kearney and Clay Streets in San Francisco,[10] that was a gathering place for Mexican exiles, a place of intellectual ferment, and the occasional brawl. Among his students were Toby Rosenthal and Ransom Holdredge.[10][11] Many of his works were of imagined views of Central America, and disappeared after he died. His largest painting, "Sunset in the Tropics", measures about 5 ft. by 7 ft. in its original frame.

The artist exhibited his work at the Mechanics' Institute Fairs in 1864 and 1865, as well as the National Academy of Design in 1872.[9] In 1872, he traveled to New York City to exhibit two paintings at the National Academy of Design.

Death and legacy

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He was returning from New York City to San Francisco on the commercial steamship Bienville (formerly USS Bienville), which was carrying a load of dynamite. It exploded on August 15, 1872 near Watling Island, Bahamas (now Bermuda). He is thought to have died at sea, leaving a widow and six children.[12][13] San Francisco artists from the San Francisco Art Association participated in a group exhibition to raise money for the surviving family, the effort was led by artist Edwin Deakin.[14][15][16] His daughter Herminia Arriola Gonzales (1857–1938), was also a noted painter.[2][17]

His work, "Moonlit River Gorge" sold at Bonhams Los Angeles in 2014 for $27,500 USD.[18] Arriola was covered in a podcast episode called "Fortunato Arriola - Wikicast 075" published in May 2020.[19]

In 2017–2018, his work was part of the group exhibition "California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820–1930," at the Laguna Art Museum, curated by Katherine Manthorne and Alberto Nulman Magidin.[20]

Paintings

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His paintings include:

  • Portrait of a young girl
  • Portrait of a young woman
  • View of the Golden Gate
  • Moon over Nicaragua
  • Twilight in the Tropics
  • Luminous Sunset with Sailboats
  • Evening Smoke by the Mosque
  • Sunset in the Tropics[21]
  • Nancy Nellie Hall Bacon, Thomas Jefferson's niece,[22] c. 1860s
  • Howard Street by Night, c. 1860s[23][24]
  • Temple Emmanuel and the San Francisco Armory, c. 1860s[25]
  • Lost in the Arctic Ice, 1864
  • Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, 1864[26]
  • South American Landscapes, c. 1866
  • Untitled (Tropical Landscape), 1866[27]
  • View Looking out the Golden Gate, 1868
  • Sunset on the Sacramento River, 1869
  • Santa Barbara Coast, 1870[28]
  • Tropical Landscape, 1870[8][29]
  • Moonlit River Gorge, 1870
  • Twilight Along the Nile at Luxor, 1872

Museum collections

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Several additional paintings are in the private collection of actor Steve Martin.[30]

References

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  1. ^ Johnson, Mark (September 11, 2013). "1976 and Its Legacy: Other Sources: An American Essay at San Francisco Art Institute". Art Practical. Archived from the original on September 26, 2013.
  2. ^ a b "El Artista Fortunato Arriola Y Su Hija Artista". Cronica (in Spanish). 1875-05-26. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com. sea de sangre Española
  3. ^ "Pioneer California Artists Well Known About the Bay". Berkeley Gazette. 1908-09-14. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Hughes, Edan Milton (2002). Artists in California, 1786-1940. Crocker Art Museum. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-884038-08-2.
  5. ^ a b "Fortunato Arriola". The Art of California: Selected Works from the Collection of the Oakland Museum. Oakland Museum, Art Department. 1984. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-87701-347-1.
  6. ^ Marcus, Jacob Rader (1955). Memoirs of American Jews, 1775-1865. Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 149. Fortunato Arriola was descended from an old Spanish family. His grandfather had been sent to Mexico on some political mission and spent the rest of his life there.
  7. ^ Gerdts, William H. (1974). Revealed Masters: 19th Century American Art: [Catalogue of] an Exhibition Organized by American Federation of Arts, New York. American Federation of Arts. p. 48.
  8. ^ a b c Miller, David (1989). Dark Eden: The Swamp in Nineteenth-Century American Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 72, 74. ISBN 978-0-521-37553-5.
  9. ^ a b c "Fortunato Arriola". QuestroyalFineArt.com. [better source needed].{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ a b Hjalmarson, Birgitta (March 1999). Artful Players: Artistic Life in Early San Francisco. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-890449-01-8.
  11. ^ Rochlin, Harriet; Rochlin, Fred (2000). Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-618-00196-5.
  12. ^ "Fortunato Arriola". The Inter Ocean. 1872-10-14. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Obit for Ysabel Arriola, wife of Fortunato Arriola". The San Francisco Examiner. 1897-10-22. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Fortunato Arriola". The San Francisco Examiner. 1872-10-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Fortunato Arriola". The Daily Memphis Avalanche. 1872-11-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Shields, Scott A. (2008). Edwin Deakin: California Painter of the Picturesque. Pomegranate. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-7649-4351-5.
  17. ^ "Herminia Arriola Biography". AskArt.com. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  18. ^ "Fortunato Arriola, American, 1827 – 1872". mutualart.com.
  19. ^ Fortunato Arriola - Wikicast 075, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZOW13AInQ
  20. ^ Frank, Patrick (2022). "California Mexicana, Myth and Mirage, and Found in Translation". Panorama. l (g). doi:10.24926/24716839.1650. ISSN 2471-6839.
  21. ^ Catalogue of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. San Francisco Art Association, University of California San Francisco Institute of Art. 1902. p. 37.
  22. ^ "Nellie Hall Bacon". The San Francisco Call and Post. 1906-10-14. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  23. ^ Beebe, Lucius; Clegg, Charles (1960). San Francisco's Golden Era: A Picture Story of San Francisco Before the Fire. Howell-North. p. 120.
  24. ^ Jaher, Frederic Cople (1968). The Age of Industrialism in America: Essays in Social Structure and Cultural Values. Free Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-02-915970-5.
  25. ^ a b "California Style: Art and Fashion of the California Historical Society". Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  26. ^ a b "Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  27. ^ a b "Untitled (Tropical Landscape)". Crocker Art Museum. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  28. ^ Crocker Art Museum: Handbook of Paintings. Crocker Art Museum. 1979. p. 184.
  29. ^ a b "A65.16.1". OMCA Collections. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  30. ^ "A Comic's Lifelong Education In Art". The New York Times. 2001-04-01. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  31. ^ "Arriola Painting". Daily Independent Journal. 1974-06-12. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ "Enjoy Magazine: Northern California Living". March 24, 2021. p. 47. Retrieved 2024-03-14 – via issuu.com.
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