Barcelona's Artur Ramon Gallery Donates a Young Fortuny to Reus

Barcelona's Artur Ramon Art gallery will donate a youthful painting by Marià Fortuny to the city of Reus, with the public handover set for Thursday 19 November at the Museu de Reus. The gift marks the centenary of one of Catalonia's longest-running dealer dynasties — and closes a family circle that began in the same city more than a century ago.

The work is a small landscape, roughly 20 x 30 centimetres, from a private collection. It shows an unidentified spot with houses in the foreground and the sea beyond. The site has not been confirmed; Artur Ramon told Diari de Tarragona he suspects it depicts somewhere on the Costa Daurada. He is certain of one thing: Fortuny painted it as an adolescent, while still living in Reus during the first years of his training.

"I was looking for a Fortuny from his youth, from a time when he was still rooted in the city," Ramon said. "It is the initiatory Fortuny that will later give rise to a astonishing artist."

Why a Fortuny, and why Reus?

The choice of artist, Ramon said, required no debate. "It was obvious it had to be a Fortuny, because he is the great painter this city has produced," he told Diari de Tarragona. He goes further in his assessment: "He is the best European painter of the 19th century."

That claim is debatable — Fortuny's reputation, though formidable, does not usually displace Goya's heirs or the Impressionists in such rankings. What is not in dispute is the gallery's record: Ramon says the firm has defended and disseminated Fortuny's work for decades.

For the dealer, the early panel matters because it already hints at what Fortuny became. "This painting lets you see one of Fortuny's great characteristics, which is that he will be a great landscape painter," Ramon said.

The donation is the second in a series tied to the gallery's centenary. The firm recently gave a painting by Juan Martínez Abades to the Museus de Sitges; the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya will receive a work by Ramon Pichot.

What does this change for the Museu de Reus?

It adds another juvenile work by the city's most universal artist to the museum's collection — and, by the family's account, deepens a documented bond. "I knew from the first moment that this was the piece that had to go to Reus," Ramon said. "It makes all the sense in the world that it is here."

The 19 November event will feature museum director Marc Ferran, journalist and researcher Tate Cabré, and historian Clara Beltrán, co-author of the book tracing the Ramon family's history. The programme includes images from research into the dynasty's Reus origins and an audiovisual piece by Lluís Alemany made for the centenary. The act ends with the formal signing over of the painting.

A dynasty rebuilt from the archives

The Ramon family, founders of one of Catalonia's most prestigious dealer and antiquarian lineages, reconstructed its Reus roots through exhaustive research in family and municipal archives, prompted by the Sitges shop's centenary. The documents tell a precise story:

• 1893: the business opens on Carrer Major in Reus as a silversmith's and jeweller's, later becoming an antiques shop.
• 1925–1926: the family moves to Sitges, aided in part by contacts around the artistic circle of Miquel Utrillo.
• After the Civil War: the family, having lost everything, restarts in Barcelona and builds an internationally active gallery.

Today the firm spans five generations and holds a stock of around 6,000 pieces. The archival finds — including previously unpublished photographs and invoices — have tightened the descendants' tie to the city. "We feel more reusenc," the family said.

Whether a 20-by-30-centimetres adolescent study will reshape scholarship on Fortuny remains to be seen; the landscape's location is still unidentified. What it does secure is that Reus now holds a documented trace of the painter before he left.