Valencian Fishermen, Joaquín Sorolla

Valencian Fishermen, Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Valencian: Joaquim Sorolla i Bastida, 27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish Valencian painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the bright sunlight of Spain and sunlit water.

The Horse’s Bath, Joaquín Sorolla

The Horse’s Bath, Joaquín Sorolla

Research, Medical Science, Joaquín Sorolla

Research, Joaquín Sorolla

Kissing The Relic, Joaquín Sorolla

Kissing The Relic, Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla - Early Life

Joaquín Sorolla was born on 27 February 1863 in Valencia, Spain. Sorolla was the eldest child born to a tradesman, also named Joaquín Sorolla, and his wife, Concepción Bastida. His sister, Concha, was born a year later. In August 1865, both children were orphaned when their parents died, possibly from cholera. They were thereafter cared for by their maternal aunt and uncle, a locksmith. 
He received his initial art education at the age of 9 in his native town, and then under a succession of teachers including Cayetano Capuz, Salustiano Asenjo. At the age of eighteen he travelled to Madrid, vigorously studying master paintings in the Museo del Prado. After completing his military service, Sorolla, at age twenty-two, obtained a grant which enabled a four-year term to study painting in Rome, Italy, where he was welcomed by and found stability in the example of Francisco Pradilla, the director of the Spanish Academy in Rome. A long sojourn to Paris in 1885 provided his first exposure to modern painting; of special influence were exhibitions of Jules Bastien-Lepage and Adolph von Menzel. Back in Rome he studied with José Benlliure, Emilio Sala, and José Villegas Cordero. In 1888, Sorolla returned to Valencia to marry Clotilde García del Castillo, whom he had first met in 1879, while working in her father's studio. By 1895, they had three children together: Maria, born in 1890, Joaquín, born in 1892, and Elena, born in 1895. In 1890, they moved to Madrid, and for the next decade Sorolla's efforts as an artist were focused mainly on the production of large canvases of orientalist, mythological, historical, and social subjects, for display in salons and international exhibitions in Madrid, Paris, Venice, Munich, Berlin, and Chicago. His first striking success was achieved with Another Marguerite (1892), which was awarded a gold medal at the National Exhibition in Madrid, then first prize at the Chicago International Exhibition, where it was acquired and subsequently donated to the Washington University Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. He soon rose to general fame and became the acknowledged head of the modern Spanish school of painting. His picture The Return from Fishing (1894) was much admired at the Paris Salon and was acquired by the state for the Musée du Luxembourg. It indicated the direction of his mature output. Sorolla painted two masterpieces in 1897 linking art and science: Portrait of Dr. Simarro at the microscope and A Research. These paintings were presented at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts held in Madrid in that year and Sorolla won the Prize of Honor. Here, he presents his friend Simarro as a man of science who transmits his wisdom investigating and, in addition, it is the triumph of naturalism, as it recreates the indoor environment of the laboratory, catching the luminous atmosphere produced by the artificial reddish-yellow light of a gas burner that contrasts with the weak mauvish afternoon light that shines through the window. These paintings may be among the most outstanding world paintings of this genre.

Sad Inheritance, Joaquín Sorolla

Sad Inheritance, Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla - Sad Inheritance

An even greater turning point in Sorolla's career was marked by the painting and exhibition of Sad Inheritance (1899), an extremely large canvas, highly finished for public consideration. The subject was a depiction of crippled children bathing at the sea in Valencia, under the supervision of a monk. They are the victims of hereditary syphilis the title implies, perhaps. Campos has suggested that the polio epidemic that struck the land of Valencia some years earlier is present, possibly for the first time in the history of painting, through the image of two affected children. The painting earned Sorolla his greatest official recognition, the Grand Prix and a medal of honor at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, and the medal of honor at the National Exhibition in Madrid in 1901. A series of preparatory oil sketches for Sad Inheritance was painted with the greatest luminosity and bravura, and foretold an increasing interest in shimmering light and of a medium deftly handled. Sorolla thought well enough of these sketches that he presented two of them as gifts to American artists; one to John Singer Sargent, the other to William Merritt Chase. After this painting Sorolla never returned to a theme of such overt social consciousness

The Pink Robe, Joaquín Sorolla

The Pink Robe, Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla - Later Years

The exhibit at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 won him a medal of honour and his nomination as Knight of the Legion of Honour; within the next few years Sorolla was honoured as a member of the Fine Art Academies of Paris, Lisbon, and Valencia, and as a Favourite Son of Valencia. A special exhibition of his works—figure subjects, landscapes and portraits—at the Galeries Georges Petit in Paris in 1906 eclipsed all his earlier successes and led to his appointment as Officer of the Legion of Honour. The show included nearly 500 works, early paintings as well as recent sun-drenched beach scenes, landscapes, and portraits, a productivity which amazed critics and was a financial triumph. Though subsequent large-scale exhibitions in Germany and London were greeted with more restraint, while in England in 1908 Sorolla met Archer Milton Huntington, who made him a member of The Hispanic Society of America in New York City, and invited him to exhibit there in 1909. The exhibition comprised 356 paintings, 195 of which sold. Sorolla spent five months in America and painted more than twenty portraits. Sorolla's work is often exhibited together with that of his contemporaries and friends, John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn.

Strolling Along the Seashore, Joaquín Sorolla

Strolling Along the Seashore, Joaquín Sorolla

Swimmers, Jávea, Joaquín Sorolla

Swimmers, Jávea, Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla - Portrait Artist

Although formal portraiture was not Sorolla's genre of preference, because it tended to restrict his creative appetites and could reflect his lack of interest in his subjects, the acceptance of portrait commissions proved profitable, and the portrayal of his family was irresistible. Sometimes the influence of Velázquez was uppermost, as in My Family (1901), a reference to Las Meninas which grouped his wife and children in the foreground, the painter reflected, at work, in a distant mirror. At other times the desire to compete with his friend John Singer Sargent was evident, as in Portrait of Mrs. Ira Nelson Morris and her children (1911). A series of portraits produced in the United States in 1909, commissioned through the Hispanic Society of America, was capped by the Portrait of Mr. Taft, President of the United States, This portrait, which was painted at the White House, is on permanent display at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
The appearance of sunlight could be counted on to rouse his interest, and it was outdoors where he found his ideal portrait settings. Thus, not only did his daughter pose standing in a sun-dappled landscape for María at La Granja (1907), but so did Spanish royalty, for the Portrait of King Alfonso XIII in a Hussar's Uniform (1907). For Portrait of Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany (1911), the American artist posed seated at his easel in his Long Island garden, surrounded by extravagant flowers. The conceit reaches its high point in My Wife and Daughters in the Garden (1910, see gallery below), in which the idea of traditional portraiture gives way to the sheer fluid delight of a painting constructed with thick passages of color, Sorolla's love of family and sunlight merged.

Joaquín Sorolla paintings in the Hispanic Society of America

Joaquín Sorolla paintings in the Hispanic Society of America

Children In The Sea, Valencia Beach, Joaquín Sorolla

Children In The Sea, Valencia Beach, Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla - Provinces of Spain

Early in 1911, Sorolla visited the United States for a second time, and exhibited 152 new paintings at the Saint Louis Art Museum and 161 at the Art Institute of Chicago a few weeks later. Later that year Sorolla met Archie Huntington in Paris and signed a contract to paint a series of oils on life in Spain. These 14 magnificent murals, installed to this day in the Hispanic Society of America building in Manhattan, range from 12 to 14 feet in height, and total 227 feet in length. The major commission of his career, it dominated the later years of Sorolla's life. Huntington had envisioned the work depicting a history of Spain, but the painter preferred the less specific Vision of Spain, eventually opting for a representation of the regions of the Iberian Peninsula, and calling it The Provinces of Spain. Despite the immensity of the canvases, Sorolla painted all but one en plein air, and travelled to the specific locales to paint them: Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Elche, Seville, Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia, Guipuzcoa, Castile, Leon, and Ayamonte, at each site painting models posed in local costume. Each mural celebrated the landscape and culture of its region, panoramas composed of throngs of laborers and locals. By 1917 he was, by his own admission, exhausted. He completed the final panel by July 1919. Sorolla suffered a stroke in 1920, while painting a portrait in his garden in Madrid. Paralysed for over three years, he died on 10 August 1923. He is buried in the Cementeri de Valencia, Spain. The Sorolla Room, housing the Provinces of Spain at the Hispanic Society of America, opened to the public in 1926. The room closed for remodeling in 2008, and the murals toured museums in Spain for the first time. The Sorolla Room reopened in 2010, with the murals on permanent display.

Joaquín Sorolla - Legacy

Sorolla's influence on some other Spanish painters, such as Alberto Pla y Rubio and Julio Romero de Torres, was so noted that they are described as "sorollista." After his death, Sorolla's widow, Clotilde García del Castillo, left many of his paintings to the Spanish public. The paintings eventually formed the collection that is now known as the Museo Sorolla, which was the artist's house in Madrid. The museum opened in 1932. Sorolla's work is represented in museums throughout Spain, Europe, America, and in many private collections in Europe and America. In 1933, J. Paul Getty purchased ten Impressionist beach scenes made by Sorolla, several of which are now housed in the J. Paul Getty Museum. In 1960, Sorolla, el pintor de la luz, a short documentary written and directed by Manuel Domínguez was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. The Spanish National Dance Company honored the painter's The Provinces of Spain by producing a ballet Sorolla based on the paintings. The high-speed railway station in Valencia is named after Sorolla.

Joaquín Sorolla - The Complete Works

Title Date Current location
Cabeza de niño 1870 Museo Soumaya 
Seelandschaft 1880
Harbour 1881 Sorolla Museum
Cabeza de mujer con mantilla blanca 1882  Museo del Prado
Study of Christ 1883
The palleter's cry 1884  Provincial Council of Valencia
El Dos de Maig Defensa del Parque de Artilleria de Monteleón, en Madrid, 1884  Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer
Dos de mayo 1884 Museo del Prado
Virgin Mary 1885  Museu de Belles Arts de València
Juan del Castillo 1885  Hispanic Society of America
A Member of the Garcia-Castillo Family 1885 Hispanic Society of America
The death of Pedro Velarde y Santillán 1886  Museo del Prado
 The Nereids 1886
Rafael Altamira y Crevea 1886  Museo del Prado
Study of a Moorish Gentleman 1886  Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Padre Jofré defending a crazy 1887  Palau de la Generalitat Valenciana
Napolitana 1887 Museum of Fine Arts of Córdoba
Studie zu Booten 1887 National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba
Portrait of the Painter Francesco Santoro, Rome 1887 Minneapolis Institute of Art
Santa en oración 1888 Museo del Prado
Contadina de Asís 1888 Sorolla Museum
Clotilde at the Window 1888
Os Guitarristas, hábitos valencianos 1889  Sorolla Museum
Llegada de la pesca 1889 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Clotilde García del Castillo 1890 Sorolla Museum
Melonenverkäufer 1890  Carmen Thyssen Museum
Peeling Potatoes 1891
Portrait of the Poet José Joaquín Herrero y Sánchez 1891 Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Portrait of Agustín Otermín 1892 Fundación Banco Santander
Jaime García Banús 1892  Museo del Prado
 El pintor Juan Espina y Capo 1892  Museo del Prado
 ¡Otra Margarita! 1892  Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Kissing the Relic 1893 Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
Valencian Scene 1893
En la sacristia 1893 National Museum of Fine Arts
 Portrait of Benito Pérez Galdós 1894 Casa-Museo Pérez Galdós
 Fishing boats on the beach, Valencia 1894
White slave trade 1894 Sorolla Museum
And They Still Say Fish is Expensive! 1894  Museo del Prado
 The Return from Fishing 1894 Musée d'Orsay
 Sea Wolf 1894 National Museum of Fine Arts
Valencian Fisherman 1895
Boat in the Albufera of Valencia 1895 Sorolla Museum
Sewing the sail 1896 Ca' Pesaro
 Joaquín Sorolla García vesti do de blanco 1896 Sorolla Museum
 Patio de San Juan de Porta Coeli, Valence 1896 Sorolla Museum
Fisherman taking up nets 1896
Research 1897 Sorolla Museum
Ma femme et mes enfants 1897 Sorolla Museum
Gondolas, Venice 1897 Sorolla Museum
Portrait of Dr Simarro at the Microscope 1897
Self-portrait 1897 Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Puerto de Valencia 1897  Cincinnati Art Museum
Sad Inheritance 1898
Enfant mangeant des raisins 1898 Sorolla Museum
The Return of Fishing 1898  National Museum of Fine Arts
On the Coast of Valencia 1898  National Museum of Fine Arts
Les Cordeliers de Jávea 1898 Sorolla Museum
Escena de playa 1899 Institut Valencià d'Art Modern
Stormy Day, Valencia 1899
Nube de verano 1899  National Museum of Fine Arts
Mother 1900 Sorolla Museum
Two Boats at Dock 1900 Hispanic Society of America
Antes de la corrida 1900 Minneapolis Institute of Art
La niña María Figueroa vestida de menina 1901 Museo del Prado
María Teresa Moret 1901 Museo del Prado
Preparation of raisins 1901 Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Aureliano de Beruete y Moret, Son 1902 Museo del Prado
The Painter Aureliano de Beruete 1902 Museo del Prado
Nude Woman 1902 Sorolla Museum
St. Mâlo, marina 1902 Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Composing the Network 1902 Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
The Young Counts of Lérida 1902 Hispanic Society of America
Señora de Sorolla in White 1902 Hispanic Society of America
Señora de Sorolla in a Spanish Mantilla 1902 Hispanic Society of America
La Sierra Nevada en hiver 1902 Sorolla Museum
Las tres velas 1903
Oxen in the Sea 1903 Sorolla Museum
The Young Amphibians 1903 Philadelphia Museum of Art
Beaching the Boat (Afternoon Light) 1903  Hispanic Society of America
The Peppers 1903  Hispanic Society of America
The Path in the Orange Grove, Alcira 1903  Hispanic Society of America
Autorretrato 1904 Sorolla Museum
Enfant au bâteau 1904 Sorolla Museum
The drinking jug 1904
O Menino do barquinho 1904
The Fisherman 1904
Jacinto Felipe Picón y Pardiñas 1904 Museo del Prado
María de los Ángeles Beruete y Moret condesa viuda de Muguiro 1904 Museo del Prado
The Beach, Valencia (Boys in the Surf) 1904 Hispanic Society of America
José Ramón Mélida y Alinari 1904 Hispanic Society of America
The Beach, Valencia (Fishwives) 1904 Hispanic Society of America
Preparation of raisins 1905 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau
The Bath, Jávea 1905 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Time for a Bathe, Valencia, Joaquín Sorolla

Time for a Bathe, Valencia, Joaquín Sorolla

Title Date Current Location
William E.B. Starkweather Fishing 1905 Hispanic Society of America
María and Her Grandmother 1905 Hispanic Society of America
San Sebastián (Parasol) 1905 Hispanic Society of America
Rocks of the Cape, Jávea 1905 Hispanic Society of America
portrait de Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1906 Saragossa Museum
Instantánea 1906 Sorolla Museum
La actriz María Guerrero como «La dama boba» 1906 Museo del Prado
Rocks at the Lighthouse, Biarritz 1906 Art Institute of Chicago
Lighthouse Walk at Biarritz 1906 Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Doctor Francisco Rodríguez de Sandoval 1906 Museo del Prado
 On the Beach at Biarritz 1906
Señora de Sorolla (Clotilde García del Castillo, 1865–1929) in Black 1906 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Castle of San Servando, Toledo 1906 Metropolitan Museum of Art
The painter Antonio Gomar y Gomar 1906 Museo del Prado
Mercedes Mendeville condesa de San Félix 1906 Museo del Prado
A Street in Toledo 1906 Worcester Art Museum
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez 1906 Hispanic Society of America
Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta 1906 Hispanic Society of America
House of El Greco, Toledo 1906 Hispanic Society of America
The Beach, Biarritz (Ladies Walking) 1906 Hispanic Society of America
Seven-Peaks, Guadarrama 1906 Harvard Art Museums
O Guadarrama visto de Angorilla 1907 Sorollo Museum
Maria at La Granja 1907 San Diego Museum of Art
The Forest. La Granja 1907 Sorollo Museum
Portrait of King Alfonso XIII in a Hussar's Uniform 1907 Royal Palace of Madrid
Le Bain à La Granja 1907 Sorollo Museum
O Arco-íris, El Pardo 1907 Sorollo Museum
Leon villagers 1907 Hispanic Society of America
Portrait of José Prudencio Guerrico 1907 National Museum of Fine Arts
La oración 1907 National Museum of Fine Arts
El doctor Joaquín Decref y Ruiz 1907 Museo del Prado
Fountain in the Forest, La Granja 1907 Rhode Island School of Design Museum
 Market, León (Awnings) 1907 Hispanic Society of America
Market, León (Arcade) 1907 Hispanic Society of America
Self Portrait 1907 Hispanic Society of America
Benigno de la Vega Inclán y Flaquer, Marqués de la Vega Inclán 1907 Hispanic Society of America
Fisherwomen with her son 1908 Sorolla Museum
 Beach at Valencia 1908
Beaching the Boat 1908
Altar of Saint Vincent Ferrer, Valencia 1908 Hispanic Society of America
The Beach, Valencia (Children) 1908 Hispanic Society of America
The Beach, Valencia (Two Bathers) 1908 Hispanic Society of America
 The Beach, Valencia (Oxen Pulling a Boat) 1908 Hispanic Society of America
The Beach, Valencia (Fishermen) 1908 Hispanic Society of America
 Segel flicken, Valência 1908 Sorolla Museum
 Portrait of Manuel Bartolomé Cossío (1857 - 1935) 1908 Museo del Prado
 On the Beach 1908 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Retrats d'Elena i María amb vestits valencians antics 1908 Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Princess Beatrice of Battenberg 1908 National Portrait Gallery
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