Fortunato Arriola (1827–1872), born in

Cosalá Cosalá () is a small city and the seat of its surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. It stands at . The city reported 6,577 inhabitants in the 2010 census. Overview Cosalá is located 155 km. from state capital Culi ...

, Sinaloa,

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, was a painter of portraits and luminous tropical landscapes that were very popular in

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, where he came to live in 1857. The son of a wealthy landowner, Arriola was a handsome, distinguished and cultivated man. He was self-taught as an artist and began his career painting portraits. 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. He had a studio near the corner of Kearney and Clay Streets 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. Most of his works, imagined views of Central America, 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. Sunset on the Sacramento River

In 1872, he traveled to

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to exhibit two paintings at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

. He was returning to San Francisco on the Bienville which was carrying a load of dynamite. It exploded at Watling Island, Bahamas on August 15, 1872. He died at sea, leaving a widow and six children. Fortunato Arriola's work has been viewed at auctions, selling at prices ranging from $3,500 USD to $27,500 USD. His work "Moonlit river gorge" sold at Bonhams Los Angeles in 2014 for $27,500 USD.

Paintings

His paintings include: * Portrait of a young girl * Portrait of a young woman * Nancy Nellie Hall Bacon, Thomas Jefferson’s Niece * Sunset on the Sacramento River * Sunset in the Tropics * View of the Golden Gate * Moon over Nicaragua * Santa Barbara Coast * Twilight in the Tropics * Tropical Landscapes * Luminous Sunset with Sailboats * Evening Smoke by the Mosque * Lost in the Arctic Ice, 1864 * South American Landscapes, circa 1866 * View Looking out the Golden Gate, 1868 * Moonlit river gorge, 1870 * Twilight Along the Nile at Luxor, 1872

Museum collections

California Historical Society The California Historical Society (CHS) is the official historical society of California. It was founded in 1871, by a group of prominent Californian intellectuals at Santa Clara University. It was officially designated as the Californian state ...

Cantor Art Center The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, formerly the Stanford University Museum of Art, and commonly known as the Cantor Arts Center, is an art museum on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California ...

, Stanford University *

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

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Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...

Courthouse Museum, Shasta State Historic Park
Several additional paintings are in the private collection of actor

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Pop Culture References

Fortunato Arriola was covered in a podcast episode called "Fortunato Arriola - Wikicast 075" published in May 2020.Fortunato Arriola - Wikicast 075, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZOW13AInQ

References

American landscape painters Mexican landscape painters 1827 births 1872 deaths Painters from California American male painters Artists from Sinaloa Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area American artists of Mexican descent Mexican emigrants to the United States 19th-century American painters 19th-century Mexican painters 19th-century American male artists Mexican male painters 19th-century Mexican male artists Deaths from explosion People who died at sea {{US-painter-1820s-stub