Priceless Piece

SMU's Meadows Museum acquires last painting by famed Spanish artist

Beach at Portici by Mariano Fortuny, Meadows Museum

The Meadows Museum has acquired the last painting of famed Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny, Beach at Portici.

Photo courtesy of Meadows Museum

Spanish art enthusiasts have a new reason to visit the Meadows Museum. The museum announced on Thursday, January 18 that it has acquired Beach at Portici, the final painting of famed 19th century Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (1838-1874), for an undisclosed amount.

The nearly finished piece depicts a summer day at the beach and demonstrates Fortuny’s signature ability to capture light in paint. It also reflects essential elements of Fortuny’s style, including dynamically posed figures, the use of strong architectural elements to define the space around the figures, and brushwork that anticipates the rise of Impressionism, museum officials say.

“Painted in Italy, sold in Paris after his death, and owned exclusively by American collectors in the decades since, Beach at Portici embodies the international character of Fortuny’s brief career,” says Mark Roglán, the Linda P. and William A. Custard director of the Meadows Museum, in a press release. “For these reasons, as well as its obvious beauty, it makes a perfect acquisition for the Meadows.”

In 1893, Beach at Portici was featured in the esteemed American Pavilion’s “Loan Collection of Foreign Masterpieces Owned in the United States” at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, considered one of the most important international exhibitions of the 19th century.

Beach at Portici will be on view at the Meadows Museum on the SMU campus beginning January 19. And from June 24 through September 23, it will be the subject of a focused exhibition, "At the Beach: Mariano Fortuny y Marsal and William Merritt Chase," paired with a loan from Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Chase’s Idle Hours (c. 1894).

The new acquisition complements the only oil painting by the artist currently in the museum’s collection: a small study composition of the same stretch of beach at Portici.

The Meadows Museum is the leading U.S. institution focused on the study and presentation of the art of Spain.

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Museum News

2 Dallas museums partner on landmark Roy Lichtenstein acquisition

Courtesy

Roy Lichtenstein

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and the Nasher Sculpture Center will present works from the joint acquisition of more than 50 artworks generously gifted by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in 2024, showing prints, drawings, and sculptures by the groundbreaking American artist at the two neighboring institutions in the Dallas Arts District.

According to a release, the installations will be on view from January 31 to August 16, 2026 at the Nasher and from January 1 to July 5, 2026 at the DMA.

The joint gift made by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation to the DMA and the Nasher in Celebration of the Centennial of Roy Lichtenstein is comprised of a selection of prints, drawings, maquettes, and sculptures by Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), a leading figure in twentieth-century American art and a pioneer of the Pop Art movement.

The works were specifically selected by the curatorial staff of both institutions and relate to objects already in their respective collections including sculptures, works on paper, and maquettes, along with tools and study objects.

Organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center’s Senior Curator Dr. Catherine Craft, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA Ade Omotosho, and The Allen and Kelli Questrom Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the DMA Dr. Emily Friedman, the presentation is divided according to each institution’s strengths and will be shown in combination with objects by Lichtenstein already in their respective permanent collections.

At the Nasher, works relating to three sculptures from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection—Head with Blue Shadow, Peace through Chemistry, and Double Glass—will be accompanied by a selection from the Foundation's gift of more than two dozen drawings and maquettes associated with Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke sculptures.

At the Dallas Museum of Art, the presentation features a set of Brushstroke sculptures carved from wood alongside various prints and studies that reveal the artist’s eclectic imagery.

Events
In addition to the exhibition, the DMA and the Nasher will co-host a Study Day focused on the artist on March 28, 2026, sponsored by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. This scholarly event will bring together a variety of curators, academics, and conservators to discuss Lichtenstein’s studio practice and the fabrication and conservation of his sculptures.

Concluding the Study Day will be a public conversation held at the DMA between Nasher Director Carlos Basualdo and artist Alex Da Corte, regarding Da Corte’s work on the forthcoming Lichtenstein retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

“In bestowing this generous gift, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation established Dallas as a center for the study and display of Lichtenstein’s work,” Basualdo says in a statement. “This collaborative presentation of the gift and the corresponding programming is an important step in the direction of pursuing that goal, deepening the understanding of an artist who remains immensely influential to contemporary art and its relationship with mass media and today’s culture.”

Roy Lichtenstein is made possible by support from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District (DTPID).

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