Indeed, there is a marked similarity between the style of Fortuny and
that of Meissonier. When some busybody informed Meissonier that Fortuny
was imitating him, Meissonier replied, "To have such a genius as Mariano
Fortuny imitate me would be the greatest happiness of my whole career."

Fortuny's life is mirrored in his name: his whole career was one
triumphant march to fortune, fame, love and honor.

He avoided society, as he was jealous of the fleeting hours, and his
close friends were few; but those who knew him loved him to a point just
this side of idolatry.

Fortuny died at Rome on November Twenty-second, Eighteen Hundred
Seventy-two, of brain rupture--an instant and painless death. In his
short life of thirty-six years he accomplished remarkable results, but
all this splendid work he regarded as merely in the line of preparation
for a greater work yet to come.

For some weeks before he died he had been troubled with a slight fever,
contracted, he thought, from painting in a damp church; but the day of
his death he took up his brush again and, as he worked, gaily talked with
his wife of their plans for the future.

It is very pleasant to recall, however, that before death claimed him,
Fortuny had completed the great picture of "The Battle of Wad Ras." The
canvas is now hanging on the wall of the Parliament House at Barcelona,
and the picture is justly the pride of the city that showed itself such a
wise and loving mother to the motherless boy, Mariano Fortuny.