Mariano Bertuchi Nieto

MARIANO BERTUCHI NIETO (Granada, 1884 - Tetuán, 1955).
"Street of Tetuan".
Oil on cardboard.
Signed and located in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 32,5 x 40,5 cm; 53 x 62 cm (frame).
Bertuchi has collected a scene where the light gives the image a relaxed and soft atmosphere, presenting the subject in an idyllic way. Through the use of a fast and impostada brushstroke, the artist gives a great protagonism to the color, and to the light. Creating in the composition a play of light and shadows that manages to contextualize the viewer in that orientalist atmosphere.
Known as "The great painter of the Protectorate" or "The painter of Morocco", Mariano Bertuchi is known for his pictorial style, the orientalism that was born in the nineteenth century as a result of the romantic spirit of flight in time and space.Bertuchi was trained in Granada, as a disciple of García Guerra and Larrocha, to later enter the School of Fine Arts. In 1895, when he was only eleven years old, he participated for the first time in an exhibition, and two years later he obtained the first award of his career. In 1899, at the age of fifteen and after his first trip to North Africa, Bertuchi presents three works in Granada and then moves to Madrid to continue his studies. That same year he presented his work in Madrid at the Biennial of the Círculo de Bellas Artes. From the beginning of the century Bertuchi attended the exhibitions of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and also showed his work in Granada. In 1903, when he was nineteen years old, he became a graphic reporter of the Moroccan Civil War, making ten oil paintings on cardboard that were published in "La Ilustración Española y Americana". In 1908 he returned to Malaga to make a series of paintings on military themes. Shortly afterwards he went to Melilla, then besieged by the imperial troops of the Sultan, to make a series of sketches of his camp. In 1911 he settled in San Roque, Cadiz, and two years later, before the Spanish troops entered Tetouan, he made sketches for his painting "Entry of H.I.H. the Khalifa Muley-el Medhi in Tetouan". In 1918 Bertuchi settles in Ceuta, and from his first years there he makes advertisements for the Ceuta-Tetuan Railway, a collaboration that will last twenty years. Also in this city he designs the sketches for the stained glass window of the main staircase of the City Hall, and paints a general view of Ceuta that is in the old mayor's office. In 1921 he paints for the African Casino of the same city a triptych dedicated to Commerce, Agriculture and Industry, and the following year he participates in the decoration of the Municipal Palace, executing the paintings of the Royal Sites that adorn the Throne Room. After several years in Ceuta, he finally settled in Tetuan in 1928, where he was appointed Inspector of the Fine Arts and Crafts Services of the protectorate of Morocco. By then he was already a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. He was also director of the Schools of Arts and Crafts of Tetuan and Targuist, as well as of the Moroccan Ethnographic Museum. In 1935 he received the Order of Alfonso X the Wise. Mariano Bertuchi is currently represented in various museums in Ceuta and several Moroccan cities.