Femmes assises et chien

Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (Catalan: Marià Fortuny i Marsal, pronounced [məɾiˈa fuɾˈtuɲ i məɾ'sal]; June 11, 1838 – November 21, 1874) was a Spanish painter known for works focusing on Romantic fascination with Orientalist themes, historicist genre painting, and military painting of Spanish imperial expansion.

Mariano Fortuny was born in Reus, near Tarragona, Catalonia. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother by the time he was 12. Thus, Mariano was raised by his grandfather, a cabinet-maker who taught him to make wax figurines. At the age of 9, at a public competition in his town, a local painter, teacher and patron, Domènec Soberano, encouraged him to pursue further study. At the age of 14 he moved to Barcelona with his grandfather.

The sculptor Domènec Talarn secured him a pension allowing him to attend the Escola Provincial de Belles Arts (the Escola de la Llotja). There he studied for four years under Claudi Lorenzale and Pau Milà i Fontanals, and in March 1857 he gained a scholarship that entitled him to two years of studies in Rome starting in 1858.