{"id":11084,"date":"2021-06-06T20:07:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T17:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/?p=11084"},"modified":"2021-06-06T20:07:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T17:07:10","slug":"joaquin-sorolla-painter-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/joaquin-sorolla-painter-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla: Painter Of Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla<\/b> was a famous <\/span>Spanish<\/b> painter. He was born in the coastal city of <\/span>Valencia<\/span><\/i>. His work is in the luminist and impressionist style. He had a complicated childhood, being orphaned at barely 2 years old, both parents died because of a cholera epidemic. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle, along with his sister Eugenia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From a very young age, he was interested in <\/span>drawing<\/span><\/i>. His uncles saw his talent and enrolled him at the age of 13 in night drawing classes, with a famous Valencian <\/span>sculptor<\/b>. There he learned with <\/span>nude <\/span><\/i>models and plaster sculptures. He continued his training and at the age of 16, he entered <\/span>the Superior Academy of Fine Arts<\/b> in Valencia. There he excels in the handling of the paintbrush and captures realistic works of great mastery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Unknown. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 2018. http:\/\/dbe.rah.es\/biografias\/8384\/joaquin-sorolla-bastida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

While studying at the <\/span>Academy of Valencia<\/span><\/i>, he befriended another artist, whose father was a famous Valencian photographer. <\/span>Andres Garcia<\/span><\/i> received Sorolla in his home and gave him a job as an assistant. <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>has in <\/span>Garcia <\/span><\/i>a teacher. The photographer taught, him the importance of the handling of light and composition. <\/span>The Garcia family <\/span><\/i>also helped him sell his paintings. <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>later marries the photographer’s daughter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla<\/b> participates in various competitions and exhibitions. Winning lots of prizes, and scholarships. <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>stood out for painting Valencia beaches, people enjoying the sea and the marinas. However, he was an extraordinary portrait painter. In addition, he made wonderful realistic works. He was also somewhat critical of the <\/span>Academy<\/b>. He did not agree with the type of artworks they have to show, realistic and classical works, that lacked light and life. The same criticism that the <\/span>Impressionists Group <\/b>made of the <\/span>Paris Salon<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Technique<\/b><\/h1>\n

By the time <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>worked as an assistant to the famous <\/span>photographer <\/b>Antonio Garc\u00eda, the photographs were usually <\/span>illuminated<\/b>, that is to say, they were colored with <\/span>watercolors<\/span><\/i>, to highlight some points and give color to some parts of the <\/span>photo<\/b>. This process was taught to <\/span>Sorolla<\/b>, who quickly learned to highlight the photographs with <\/span>lights <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>colors <\/span><\/i>to give them more <\/span>life<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Valencia, <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>began to create paintings to support himself. Sorolla was a <\/span>tireless worker<\/b>. His artwork is counted in almost three thousand works, and almost twenty thousand drawings and sketches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sorolla\u00a0<\/b>liked to paint\u00a0outdoors<\/b>, to capture light and shadow. Because of this preference, he had to paint\u00a0quickly<\/b>, as the light was\u00a0changeable<\/b>. His brushwork was loose, he used long brushes, which is why his work has so much movement. Once the moment was captured, he would move the paintings to his\u00a0studio\u00a0<\/b>to finish them, but most of the work was done outdoors.<\/p>\n

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Del Rivero, R. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla painting. Sorolla Museum. https:\/\/www.madridiario.es\/470818\/efemeride-muerte-sorolla-cercedilla-madrid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

In his painting workshop, he had a large entrance of light in the ceiling.\u00a0 He had modified the ceiling to have as much light as possible. <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>had a good memory, so he could remember the <\/span>light <\/b>and the <\/span>movement <\/b>of the sea, and then finish capturing it in his studio. Sometimes he used <\/span>photography <\/b>as an auxiliary element when painting. Either using his photographs or those of his father-in-law, <\/span>Antonio Garcia<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Artwork<\/b><\/h1>\n

Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla<\/b> was mainly dedicated to capturing the sea, <\/span>beaches<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>marinas<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>always sought <\/span>beauty<\/b>. He once said “<\/span>Art has no relation to ugliness or sadness. Light is the life of everything it touches; so the more light there is in the painting, the more life, the more truth, the more beauty it will have.<\/span><\/i>” So everything he painted used to emphasize <\/span>beauty<\/b>, always works <\/span>full <\/b>of light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sorolla <\/b>even complained about the difficulty of painting the sea, however, he managed to convey the <\/span>movement <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>depth <\/span><\/i>of the water in his artworks. The <\/span>sea <\/b>was represented majestically in this artwork \u00a8The white boat\u00a8.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The white boat. Joaquin Sorolla. 1905. https:\/\/www.alejandradeargos.com\/index.php\/es\/completas\/32-artistas\/41818-joaquin-sorolla-biografia-obras-y-exposiciones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of <\/span>Sorolla’s <\/b>most famous works is “<\/span>Sewing The Sail”<\/span><\/i>. A magnificent artwork whose main figure is a boat’s <\/span>sail<\/b>. For some critics this artwork was not well regarded, how could a simple inanimate thing be the center of an artwork. However, this perfectly achieved artwork is full of <\/span>light<\/b>, the fabric of the sail transmits <\/span>movement<\/b>. It is the scene of the daily life of fishermen and their families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sewing the sail. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 1896. https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Archivo:Cosiendo_la_vela.jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his artworks, the shadows had colors, violets, browns, and blues stand out in “<\/span>Walk On The Beach”<\/span><\/i>. This artwork by <\/span>Sorolla <\/b>shows two ladies in their white dresses, walking on the shores of a Valencian beach. The ladies are his wife and daughter. The artwork conveys <\/span>movement<\/b>, you can almost touch the <\/span>breeze <\/b>that moves the hat and dresses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Walk on the beach. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 1909. https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paseo_a_orillas_del_mar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Collections<\/b><\/h1>\n

Sorolla <\/b>was a great <\/span>collector<\/span><\/i>. A great variety of collections can be seen in the <\/span>Sorolla Museum <\/b>in Madrid. Among them are butterflies, traditional Spanish costumes, and traditional jewelry. And a large collection of photographs, he came to have more than six thousand <\/span>images<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The costumes and jewelry were collected by <\/span>Sorolla<\/b>, to investigate and to be able to <\/span>paint <\/b>more accurately the great artwork he was commissioned to paint. In 1911, the <\/span>Hispanic Society of New York <\/b>commissioned <\/span>Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla<\/b> to paint “<\/span>Vision of Spain”<\/span><\/i>. A majestic artwork consisting of 14 large panels, showing the different regions of <\/span>Spain<\/b>. For this, the artist traveled to investigate, talk, make paintings and photographs of each <\/span>region<\/b>. In addition to the photographs, he acquired clothing and jewelry from each region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Sevilla. The dance. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 1915. https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Visi%C3%B3n_de_Espa%C3%B1a5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Ayamonte. Fishing Tuna. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 1919. https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Visi%C3%B3n_de_Espa%C3%B1a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/b><\/h3>\n

Garcia, A. Las siete claves de la pintura de Sorolla. 2020. <\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=utXylAqC6Tc&t=183s<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

MDO. El pintor de la luz se apaga en Madrid: Sorolla muere en Cercedilla. 2019. <\/span>https:\/\/www.madridiario.es\/470818\/efemeride-muerte-sorolla-cercedilla-madrid<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez, M. <\/span>Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla: biograf\u00eda, obras y exposiciones<\/span><\/a>. 2020. <\/span>https:\/\/www.alejandradeargos.com\/index.php\/es\/completas\/32-artistas\/41818-joaquin-sorolla-biografia-obras-y-exposiciones<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Segura, L. Un coleccionista llamado Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 2013. <\/span>https:\/\/www.rtve.es\/noticias\/20131209\/coleccionista-llamado-joaquin-sorolla\/815260.shtml<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Wikipedia. Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla. 2021. <\/span>https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Sorolla<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Wikipedia. Visi\u00f3n de Espa\u00f1a. 2021. <\/span>https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Visi%C3%B3n_de_Espa%C3%B1a#:~:text=Visi%C3%B3n%20de%20Espa%C3%B1a%2C%20tambi%C3%A9n%20conocido,el%20pintor%20espa%C3%B1ol%20Joaqu%C3%ADn%20Sorolla<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla was a famous Spanish painter. He was born in the coastal city of Valencia. His work is in the luminist and impressionist style. He had a complicated childhood, being orphaned at barely 2 years old, both parents died because of a cholera epidemic. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle, along with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":11087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,1],"tags":[5,76,2209,2208,21,2207,82],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-culture","category-general","tag-art","tag-culture","tag-impresionism","tag-luminism","tag-painting","tag-sorolla","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11084"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11095,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11084\/revisions\/11095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11084"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}