Fortunato Arriola
Born	1827 Cosalá, Sinaloa, Mexico
Died	August 15, 1872
Nationality	Mexican

Fortunato Arriola (1827–1872), born in Cosalá, Sinaloa, Mexico, was a painter of portraits and luminous tropical landscapes that were very popular in San Francisco, California, 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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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. ^[3]

Sunset on the Sacramento River, 1869, Cantor Art Center, Stanford University

In 1872, he traveled to New York City to exhibit two paintings at the National Academy of Design. 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. ^[4]

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
• Cantor Art Center, Stanford University
• Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
• Oakland Museum of California
• Courthouse Museum, Shasta State Historic Park

Several additional paintings are in the private collection of actor Steve Martin.

Pop Culture References

Fortunato Arriola was covered in a podcast episode called "Fortunato Arriola - Wikicast 075" published in May 2020.^[5]

References