Joaquín Sorolla
Joaquín Sorolla | |
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landscape art | |
Movement | Impressionism, Luminism |
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (
Biography
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.[2]
He received his initial art education at the age of 9 in his native town,
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.[5]
His first striking success was achieved with Another Marguerite (1892), which was awarded a gold medal at the National Exhibition in Madrid,
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.[7]
Sad Inheritance!
An even greater turning point in Sorolla's career was marked by the painting and exhibition of
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.[10] 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.[11] After this painting Sorolla never returned to a theme of such overt social consciousness.[12]
Maturity
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;[3] 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
Sorolla's work is often exhibited together with that of his contemporaries and friends, John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn.[15]
Portraits
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,[16] 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.[17] 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).[18] 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,[19] This portrait, which was painted at the White House, is on permanent display at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio.[20]
The appearance of sunlight could be counted on to rouse his interest, and it was outdoors where he found his ideal portrait settings.
The 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[24] [25] and 161 at the Art Institute of Chicago a few weeks later.[26] 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.[27][28] 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
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.[32] 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.[33]
Legacy
Sorolla's influence on some other Spanish painters, such as Alberto Pla y Rubio[34] and Julio Romero de Torres,[35] was so noted that they are described as "sorollista."[36]
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
Sorolla's work is represented in museums throughout Spain, Europe, America, and in many private collections in Europe and America.
In 1960, Sorolla, el pintor de la luz, a short documentary written and directed by Manuel Domínguez was presented at the Cannes Film Festival.[38]
The Spanish National Dance Company honored the painter's The Provinces of Spain by producing a ballet Sorolla based on the paintings.[39]
The high-speed railway station in Valencia is named after Sorolla.[40]
Temporary exhibitions
In 2007 many of his works were exhibited at the
.From 5 December 2011 to 10 March 2012, several of Sorolla's works were exhibited in Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, in New York. This exhibition included pieces used during Sorolla's eight-year research for Vision of Spain.
An exhibition titled Sorolla & America explored Sorolla's unique relationship with the United States in the early twentieth century. The exhibition opened at the Meadows Museum at SMU in Dallas (13 December 2013 – 19 April 2014). From there it traveled to the San Diego Museum of Art (30 May – 26 August 2014) and then to Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid (23 September 2014 – 11 January 2015).[41]
In 2016 the Munich Kunsthalle held a major Sorolla exhibition.[42]
In 2019 the National Gallery, London, held a major temporary Sorolla exhibition, titled Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light.[43][44][45]
In 2022 the Palazzo Reale in Milan held a major temporary Sorolla exhibition, titled Joaquin Sorolla: Pittore di luce (painter of light).[46]
Gallery
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Joaquín Sorolla García vestido de blanco, 1896. Sorolla Museum, Madrid.
The painter's son, "dressed in white". -
Children on the Seashore, 1903. In the upper right corner, Sorolla has included an oblique reference to another favorite theme, oxen pulling fishing boats in to shore. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Beach at Valencia, 1908.
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The Horse’s Bath, 1909. Sorolla Museum, Madrid.
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Walk on the Beach or Paseo a orillas del mar, 1909. Sorolla Museum, Madrid.
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Children on the beach, 1910. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
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Castilla or La fiesta del pan, 1913. First to be completed of Vision of Spain, 14 murals at the Hispanic Society in Manhattan.
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Niña, 1904. Museo Nacional de la Habana, Cuba.
Notes
- ^ Spanish pronunciation: [xoaˈkin soˈɾoʎa]
Valencian pronunciation: [dʒuaˈkim soˈɾoʎa]
References
- ^ "By reason of his native genius and stubborn will-power he became what he is—the painter of vibrating sunshine without equal. Let there be no mincing of comparisons in this assertion. Not Turner, not Monet, painted so directly blinding shafts of sunlight as has this Spaniard." (James Gibbons Huneker, quoted in Peel, Edmund: The Painter Joaquin Sorolla, Philip Wilson Publishers, Ltd., 1989, p. 13.)
- ^ Sorolla, Francisco Pons: "Sorolla: his Painting and his Family", The Painter Joaquin Sorolla, p. 19.
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 434.
- ^ Peel, p. 244.
- ^ Peel, p. 14.
- ^ "The Return from Fishing is a key painting in Sorolla's development. It is his first large Valencian beach scene and his first large painting of a natural subject—one might almost say that it was his first Sorolla." (Peel, p. 215.)
- ^ Campos Bueno, JJ, (2010) Art and Science in Sorolla’s Painting A Research in Dr. Simarro’s Lab. Psychologia Latina, 1, 9–26
- ^ "A lusciously perverse view of a backward land - Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light review". The Guardian. 14 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2023.
- ^ Campos Bueno, JJ, (2010)
- ^ Peel, p. 217.
- ^ Peel, pp. 217–218.
- ^ "Los pintores Sorolla y Zorn, en una exposición frente a frente". El Pais. 5 March 1992. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ F.P. Sorolla, p. 22.
- ^ Peel, pp. 246–247.
- ^ Thyssen. "Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Presents Sargent/Sorolla". Thyssen Museum. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ "I do not care to paint portraits indoors [...] I cannot feel sympathetic." (Joaquín Sorolla, quoted in Evening Post, 5 February 1909.)
- ^ Peel, p. 221.
- ^ The impact may have been reciprocal: "[...] that Sorolla was influenced by Sargent in his portraiture seems apparent [...] It certainly appears that Sargent's landscape painting after 1906 was strongly influenced by Sorolla." (Peel, p. 15.)
- ^ File:Joaquin Sorolla Portrait of President Taft.jpg – Wikimedia Commons at commons.wikimedia.org.
- ^ Peel, p. 230.
- ^ Peel, pp. 63, 232.
- ^ File:Joaquin Sorolla Retrato Del Rey Don Alfonso XIII con el Uniforme De Husares.jpg – Wikimedia Commons at commons.wikimedia.org
- ^ The portrait of Louis Tiffany is on permanent display at the Hispanic Society of America in Manhattan.
- ^ "Exhibition Archive, 1910-1919". Saint Louis Art Museum. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
- ^ Sorolla, Joaquin (1911). A Collection of Paintings by Joaquin Sorolla Y Bastida: Exhibited in the United States Under the Auspices of the Hispanic Society of America. City Art Museum of St. Louis.
Opening Wednesday Morning, 22 March 1911, at Ten O'clock, in Galleries 16, 2, 3 and 14 in the East Wing at the Forest Park Art Building and Continuing for Three Weeks
- ^ Peel, p. 247.
- ^ Burke, Marcus. "A Collection in Context: The Hispanic Society of America". Media Center for Art History at Columbia University. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
These 14 murals can be seen in detail online at this Web site. In the First Floor map at the upper right, click on the blue dot in the left-most empty room -- which shows the whole Sorolla Room.
- ^ "The Provinces of Spain". Media Center for Art History at Columbia University. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
- ^ Muller, Priscilla: "Sorolla and America", The Painter Joaquin Sorolla, p. 65.
- ^ Muller, p. 67.
- ^ "Yesterday afternoon I was able to do quite a lot of work on the picture, so that I hope to finish it today, the feast of St. Peter. That will be the end of more than six years' work, of suffering and struggle, with so much that was good and bad, especially at this stage". (F.P. Sorolla, p. 29.)
- ^ Felipe Garín and Facundo Tomás Visión de España. La colección de la Hispanic Society of America Catálogo de la Exposición, Bancaja, Valencia 2008
- ^ Kahn, Eve (4 March 2010). "Panoramic 'Vision' Back From Tour of Spain". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
- ^ "Pla y Rubio, Alberto". Museo del Prado (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2016.
- ^ "Romero de Torres, Julio". MAXAM Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ Guzmán, Joaquín (21 February 2016). "Sobre Sorolla, sorollistas y antisorollismo". valenciaplaza (in Spanish). Grupo Plaza. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ J. Paul Getty Museum. Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Archived 28 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 6 September 2008.
- ^ "Official Selection 1960: All the Selection". Archived from the original on 25 December 2013.
- ^ "Sorolla" (ballet). Ballet Nacional de Espana. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- ^ "Valencia Joaquín Sorolla Train Station". www.renfe-sncf.com. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
- ^ "Sorolla & America". Meadows Museum. Dallas. 2013–2014. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- ^ Reitter-Welter, Barbara (19 March 2016). "Ausstellung: Sorolla, der Meister des Lichts". Die Welt.
- National Gallery, London. 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
- ^ Gutiérrez Zaldívar, Ignacio (28 February 2019). "Gran muestra de Joaquín Sorolla en la National Gallery de Londres". El Cronista (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^ Gascoigne, Laura (9 March 2019). "Enjoy a blast of Spanish sun from Joaquin Sorolla". The Spectator. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^ "Joaquin Sorolla Pittore di luce". Archived from the original on 7 February 2022.
External links
- Museo Sorolla (38 works) (in Spanish)
- www.sorollapaintings.com
- Hispanic Society Of America (provinces of Spain and extensive collection of Sorolla paintings
- www.Joaquin-Sorolla-y-Bastida.org (146 works)
- Art Renewal (84 works)
- Exhibition of Sorolla paintings at the Prado in Madrid, Spain
- Video Museo Sorolla in Madrid on YouTube
- Fundación Bancaja Collection of Sorolla's painting in Valencia, Spain