Joaquin Sorolla

JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 - Madrid, 1923).
"Res; Marina with oxen. Abstraction", c. 1908.
Oil on canvas.
Attached certificate of authenticity issued by Ms. Blanca Pons Sorolla (granddaughter of the artist). Nº BPS4694
We thank Mrs. Blanca Pons Sorolla for her help in the cataloguing.
The word "Res" can be seen in the lower center.
Provenance: Elena Sorolla García (Daughter of the artist).
Measurements: 10,5 x 13 cm; 31 x 34 cm (frame).
The sketchy technique of this work, almost abstract, indicates that it is a study of the artist, taken from life. This was a frequent exercise used by Sorolla, who tried to capture the luminosity and its reflection on the environment. This painting captures that essence, showing, as if it were the painter's notes, a pictorial composition that is especially reminiscent of the same one developed by the author in his work "The return from fishing. Towing the boat", painted in 1984 and currently in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Already in his school days, Joaquín Sorolla showed his love for drawing and painting, attending in the afternoons to the drawing classes taught by the sculptor Cayetano Capuz at the School of Artisans. Awarded upon finishing his preliminary studies at the Escuela Normal Superior, he entered the prestigious Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia in 1879. Also, during his visits to Madrid in 1881 and 1882, he copied paintings by Velázquez, Ribera and El Greco at the Prado Museum. Two years later he obtained a great success at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts with a history painting, which stimulated him to apply for a scholarship to study at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Having achieved his goal, in 1885 Sorolla left for Rome, staying in Paris for several months before arriving. In the French capital he was impressed by the paintings of the realists and the painters who worked outdoors. At the end of his years in Rome he returned to Valencia in 1889, settling in Madrid the following year. In 1892 Sorolla showed a new concern in his art, becoming interested in social problems by depicting the sad scene of "¡Otra Margarita!", awarded a first class medal at the National, and the following year at the International in Chicago. This sensitivity would remain in his work until the end of the decade, in his performances on the Valencian coast. Gradually, however, the Valencian master will abandon the themes of unhappy children that we see in "Triste herencia", which had been awarded a prize at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and at the National in Madrid a year later. Encouraged by the success of his resplendent images of the Mediterranean, and stimulated by his love of the light and life of its sunny beaches, he focused on these scenes in his works, more cheerful and pleasant, with which he would achieve international fame. In 1906 he held his first individual exhibition at the George Petit Gallery in Paris, where he also demonstrated his skills as a portraitist. In 1908 the American Archer Milton Huntington, impressed by the artist's exhibition at the Grafton Gallery in London, sought to acquire two of his works for his Hispanic Society. A year later he himself invited Sorolla to exhibit at his institution, resulting in an exhibition in 1909 that was a huge success. The relationship between Huntington and Sorolla led to the most important commission of the painter's life: the creation of the immense canvases destined to illustrate, on the walls of the Hispanic Society, the regions of Spain. Trying to capture the essence of the lands and people of his country, Sorolla traveled throughout Spain between 1911 and 1919, while continuing to hold exhibitions. Incapacitated by an attack of hemiplegia in 1921, Sorolla died two years later, without seeing his great "Vision of Spain", which would not be installed until 1926.