Mariano Bertuchi

MARIANO BERTUCHI NIETO (Granada, 1884 - Tetuan, 1955).
"Collection of 86 drawings".
Ink and pencil on paper.
Some of them have handwritten inscriptions.
Several of the drawings are signed.
Measurements: 17.5 x 12 cm; 26 x 17 cm.
Mariano Bertuchi was one of the great graphic chroniclers of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco and a privileged witness of the conflicts and transformations in North Africa in the first half of the 20th century. This collection brings together 86 original drawings that allow us to explore not only his extraordinary artistic ability, but also his documentary and journalistic view of the reality of his time. The collection includes portraits, landscapes and caricatures of some of the most important figures linked to the war and the political-military context of the time, drawn during his work as a correspondent in the Moroccan civil war.
Of special relevance are several of the drawings preserved with handwritten annotations on the back, where one can still read the editorial indications of the newspaper for which they were made, as well as the references to the exact moment in which they were to be published. These details turn the collection into a testimony of the functioning of the illustrated press of the time and provide a documentary dimension of great historical value. On some occasions, moreover, it can be seen how the author himself reused papers from his daily environment as a support, among them an invitation to the Manila shawl dance held in San Lorenzo on August 12 at ten o'clock at night.
Beyond its artistic quality, this set constitutes a unique historical document, capable of placing the viewer in the political, military and cultural context of colonial Morocco and Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. At the same time, it is evidence of its author's ability as a visual chronicler of his time, attentive both to the great historical events and to the everyday details that made up the social reality of the time.
Mariano Bertuchi Nieto, known as "the great painter of the Protectorate" or "the painter of Morocco", developed a large part of his career in North Africa, where he captured an authentic and luminous vision of everyday Morocco, far removed from traditional orientalist clichés. Settled permanently in Tetouan since 1928 as Chief Inspector of Fine Arts of the Protectorate, Bertuchi portrayed souks, landscapes and popular scenes with a brushstroke close to impressionism, focused on capturing the atmosphere and the real identity of the North African populations. Trained in Granada and later in Madrid, he stood out from a very young age for his artistic talent. After his first trips to Morocco, he worked as a photojournalist of the Moroccan Civil War for La Ilustración Española y Americana, consolidating a close relationship with the Spanish military and colonial world in North Africa. Throughout his career he made posters, official paintings, institutional decorations and an intense teaching and cultural work in Ceuta, Tetuan and other cities of the Protectorate.
Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and decorated in 1935 with the Order of Alfonso X the Wise, Bertuchi left an abundant production that today is preserved in museums and Spanish and Moroccan institutions, being considered one of the main visual chroniclers of twentieth century Morocco.