27-11 Sorolla (1863-1923) - Spanish Master of Light
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- Опубликовано: 25 янв 2020
- Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (pronounced Sir-roy-a, 27 February 1863 - 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterised by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the bright sunlight of his native land and sunlit water.
He was born in Valencia, Spain, the eldest child of a tradesman and his wife Concepción Bastida. His sister Concha was born a year later and in 1985 both children were orphaned when their parents died possibly of cholera. They were cared for by their maternal aunt and her husband who was a locksmith.
Sorolla was first trained in art when he was 9 and had a number of teachers until he travelled to Madrid when he was 18 to study the masters in the Prado. Following military service he obtained a grant to spend four years studying in Rome. He then travelled to Paris where he encountered modern painting. Jules Bastien-Lepage was a particular influence. In 1888 (aged 25) he returned to Valencia to marry Clotilde García del Castillo, whom he had first met in 1879, while working in her father's studio. She became his muse and the subject of many of his paintings. They had a passionate relationship and a happy marriage. When they were apart, he would write every day often enclosing a flower in his letter. He wrote, “All my love is focused on you. Despite my great love for our children, you are more, much more than them for so many reasons that there is no need to mention. You are my body, my life, my mind, my perpetual ideal”. By 1895, they would have 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 focussed 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.
Sorolla other great love was Valencia where he returned every year to paint beach scenes and captured the blazing Mediterranean sunlight. He painted outside and many of his canvases still have grains of sand embedded in them.
His exceptional artistic talent was recognised very early on and he exhibited in Madrid in his early teens and his first large history painting was bought by the Spanish government in 1884 before he was 21. He had an extraordinary technical ability and can represent any figure, texture, object or fall of light that he wants. Photography played in important role in the way he saw the world although he painted direct from nature rather than from photographs.
The last exhibition of Sorolla in London was 1908, not a success, not many were sold, no commissions but he met Archer Huntingdon, his father had built a railroad and he wanted to establish himself as an American patron. He invites him to do an exhibition the following year in New York at the Hispanic Society. The exhibition was a sensation, they were lined up around the block in the snow. He sells 195 paintings, receives 25 portrait commissions including being invited to the White House to paint the President Taft. All the museums of America had to have a Sorolla and that year the met bought this painting. He comes back from New York a very wealthy man.
The vision of Spain almost killed Sorolla. The difficulty, intensity and constant travel from 1910 to 1920 when he has a very serious stroke and he never paints again. He died in 1923 and was buried like a state hero. His body was transported in a cortège by train to Valencia, where it was greeted by thousands and there, in his hometown, he was buried in full state pomp.
Now it was over, his work and the great project. His great project was installed in 1926 but was greeted within difference. The world had changed. In the 1920 you thought of Dali and Miro not Sorolla. After all these decades of ignoring Sorolla we need to reimagine him again to see where he fits into a more complex story of modern Spanish art.
Full PDF notes are available on my website at www.shafe.co.uk/wp-content/up...
I really enjoyed this, very insightful, thanks!
Sorolla is well-known and respected by artists of today. He's right up there with Sargent.
Thank you for this. I first encountered a Sorolla painting in the Prado; boys on the beach, that I had to visit his home and discover more while in Madrid. His home was well worth the visit.
Thank you for this glorious retrospective!
Thank you for this beautiful and thoughtful discussion on Sorolla.
He was the world's greatest artist.
Thank you for all your videos! Glad I found your channel!
Very inspiring to hear details about the artist and how he thought I shared with my artist friends
Had the pleasure of noing one of his grandchildren . And saw a private collection. I lived in spian 43 year's . One of the greatest marsters of light .
thank you. I learned so much from this talk you gave and the pictures..
Great talk on this marvellous artist
New to Sorolla. Thank you for the lesson.
For the Spanish public, a very popular and relatable artist.
Love this . Subscribed 👍🏽
He used photography because his first job was an assistant of a photographer that happens to be his wife father. On his biography book you can see him and photographs of the same subject that later painted.
Seems he is almost invisible in the UK. Never heard of him! Thanks for the super talk.
Dear Laurence, thank you so much for this most interesting and enjoyable lecture on Sorolla, my favourite Painter
I believe he IS the greatest impressionist
Wrong about him not coming back into favor. He is now all the rage with the realist painting crowd of younger people.
Great lecture!
An excellent overview of my favorite artist. I disagree that the effort of the Hispanic Society Murals caused Sorolla's stroke. We now known that many people are prone to blood clots (like me) and it easily treated. They can build up slowly in the lungs with no symptons other than fatigue.
Very interesting, thank you! Did his brush capture someone from the circle of Ortega y Gasset?
Sorolla was part of the Generation of 1898 and painted
○ José Ortega y Gasset, 1918, Hispanic Society of America, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joaquín_Sorolla_y_Bastida_-_José_Ortega_y_Gasset_-_A1939_-_Hispanic_Society_of_America.jpg
○ Miguel de Unamuno, c. 1912, Art Museum Bilbao, ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitxer:Joaquín_Sorolla_-_Portrait_of_Unamuno_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
○ Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, 1917, Hispanic Society of America, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joaquín_Sorolla_y_Bastida_-_Jacinto_Benavente_y_Martínez_-_A1925_-_Hispanic_Society_of_America.jpg
○ and Ignacio Zuloaga painted his own self-portrait, paintinglifestories.blogspot.com/2013/05/zuloaga-paints-patterns.html
@@LaurenceShafe Thank you again. I am looking for a photo of Cesar A Comet. But porbably he was atill too young to be noriced by Sorolla by 1920.
Okay. Another ?....How do you get children to pose for a painting when they don't really like to or will not stay still ..,?? Were Fotos taken or was this a long sitting process ...?? Very curious 🤨 as to how he handled it......
It is controversial. When he was a teenager Sorolla worked in a photographic studio as an assistant for the person who was to become his father-in-law. He was also seen taking photographs but no one ever saw him using photographs in his studio. He did work very quickly but the real answer is we don't know.
🙏 Thank you!
11:10, wow he could never match the blinding light of the sunlight , so he made it seem like blinding light and reflections by letting it eat into the edges the peoples body. Then using the sharpness of the umbrella to indicate areas shaded by the sunlight.
So he is considered an impressionistic painter ???
He is not an Impressionist, he was only 11 years old when the first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris, but his work exhibits some features in common with the Impressionists. He painted most of his works outdoors rather than in the studio, he sought to capture the transient effects of sunlight and he painted everyday life. He said, "All the mistakes committed by artists are due to their having separated themselves from truth, believing that their imagination is stronger. There is nothing stronger than nature. With nature in front of us we can do everything well." I think Monet would have agreed.
My most like faporete.
I have heard of Sorolla. I heard of Sorolla in this lecture: ruclips.net/video/j1jdCnRB46A/видео.html. As did you, apparently.
Yes, a good talk. I also benefited from my visit to his house in Madrid and the exhibition at the National Gallery, London, March-July 2019 and the associated book "Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light'.