Joaquin Sorolla

JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 - Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923).
"Bullfight".1897.
Oil on fine cardboard with white primer adhered to French-made cardboard.
Signed, dedicated to Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora and dated in the lower right corner.
Attached certificate issued by Blanca Pons Sorolla.
Photograph of this work is preserved in the Photographic Archive of the Sorolla Museum.
Work inventoried in the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist with the number BPS 3480.
Measurements: 25,3 x 35,5 cm; 44,5 x 54,5 cm (frame).

The oil painting "Bullfight" is an early work of Sorolla, in which his vibrant style is already unmistakable, although at that time he was mainly interested in genre and popular themes, not yet linked to the light of the Mediterranean. Here he masterfully captures the dramatic essence of bullfighting, highlighting the rapid brushstrokes and his ability to synthesize the movement and emotion of the fight with great formal economy. The bull charges with impetus the red cape held by the bullfighter, who leans toward the animal with a skillful and confident gesture. The banderillero, behind the bull, assumes a strategic position to plunge into the bleeding back of the bull with a dramatic flashing edge. This character, with his face unhinged by the rapid movement of his body, seems to dilute in a pure fierceness impregnated with fierceness. Three characters wearing monteras are standing in the background, but inside the ring. With their arms raised, they attentively observe the confrontation, which adds a theatrical touch that contrasts with the drama of the staging. The ring dominates the composition, eclipsing the space of the stands, which are reduced to spots bordering on abstraction. The intense reds of the cape and the blood contrast with the warm ochers of the sand, balanced by the white blouses and the green touches of the jackets. Sorolla flees from the spectacularization of bullfighting, and even ignores the audience. What interests him is to communicate an atmosphere charged with contradictory emotions related to the emotional exaltation and violence inherent in the rite. Painted in 1897, this oil painting belongs to the early years of Sorolla's career, when he was exploring themes related to Spanish traditions. Although Sorolla would later become famous for his luminous depictions of Mediterranean life, works such as "Corrida de toros" demonstrate his early interest in culture and folklore, approached with an unparalleled pulse.

Already in his school days, Joaquín Sorolla showed his fondness for drawing and painting, attending the drawing classes given by the sculptor Cayetano Capuz at the School of Artisans in the afternoons. 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. He is currently represented in the Prado Museum and the one that bears his name in Madrid, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Orsay Museum in Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Fine Arts Museums of Bilbao and Valencia, the National Portrait Gallery in London and many others.