CLEMENTE PUJOL DE GUASTAVINO | THE FORTUNE TELLER

Executed with exquisite virtuosity and attention to detail, the present work depicts a fortune teller, a subject which entranced Clemente Pujol de Guastavino and his fellow late-nineteenth century Orientalist artists such as Rudolf Ernst (fig. 1) and Ludwig Deutsch. The Fortune Teller’s light-filled interior, decorated with leather bound books and other finely detailed decorative objects, together with the composition’s saturated hues and vibrant colors are hallmarks of Pujol de Guastavino’s oeuvre and that of his fellow Spanish Orientalists. The finely observed and detailed figures and their costumes further highlight the influence of Jean-Léon Gérôme, under whom Pujol de Guastavino studied in Paris in 1876. The artist exhibited regularly at the Salon and his painting Danse mauresque won him a medal of honor at the 1889 Exposition Universelle.