Fortunino designed an advertisement for soap when he was nine years old, before beginning to help his father with illustrations for books and magazines. In the early 1900s Fortunino went to work in Paris for the magazine “Illustration Française” and in 1902 he was invited to London in order to illustrate the Coronation of King Edward VII for “The Graphic” magazine. The family settled in London, living in Paddington.
Fortunino illustrated every major event of British Royal Family, up to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
From 1908 Fortunino’s work was published in magazines in Britain and America, including “The Illustrated London News”, “London Magazine”, “Nash's” and “Printer's Pie”.
When war broke out in 1914, Fortunino became a war artist. His most famous painting is arguably the one he made for the Blue Cross animal charity entitled “Goodbye, Old Man”, showing a British soldier saying farewell to his dying horse.
Fortunino was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1917. His talents made him a popular illustrator for designing advertising, posters and catalogues, and he worked for the British railway company London, Midland, Scottish (LMS), designing posters for Southport and Blackpool. He also designed posters for Ovaltine, Burberry's and many other companies.
Fortunino was recommended to Hollywood film director Cecil B. DeMille and produced a number of paintings of Rome and Egypt from which authentic designs were made for the film “The Ten Commandments”.
Fortunino died in London on 8th February 1963.
Books illustrated by Fortunino Matania
Six Stories from Shakespeare, retold by John Buchan (1934)
Raphael and Stella: A Baker's Delight Immortalised in Paint, by Matania (1944)
Great Stories from History, Ed. Edward Horton and Peter Shellard (1970)
The Eagle Book of Amazing Stories 1974 (1973)
With the British Army on the Western Front: Twelve Signed Artist's Proofs. London: The Sphere & Tatler; [1916]
For a WW1 poem entitled “Goodbye Old Man” by Mackenzie Bell, please see
http://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2023/05/good-bye-old-man-poem-written-by.html
