Joaquín Sorolla Bastida (Valencia, 1863 – Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923) is linked to the European naturalist movement of the late 19th century. In his work we can perceive a universalist link that transcends time and a sincere commitment to the reproduction of reality. In his painting there is a mystery in clarity, a philosophy in evidence and a thought to restore the truth. The Goya-Camón Aznar Museum presents a collection of oil paintings that is part of the centenary of the artist’s death, which come from the Sorolla Museum in Madrid and the Foundation of the same name.
As a differentiating facet, the curation is carried out by the Castellón writer Manuel Vicent who proposes a dialogue between literature and art. In the exhibition and in the catalog that accompanies it, Vicent traces a story of the experience with Sorolla’s paintings and with the reconstruction of his own memory, his memories and experiences in front of the sea. He also gives voice to Sorolla’s most characteristic characters, and makes an approach to Sorolla’s luminist aesthetic. Furthermore, he reflects on the literature of Blasco Ibáñez and the painting of Sorolla.
In 1906, Joaquín Sorolla held his first exhibition in Paris, where he presented 500 works produced between 1901 and 1905 at the Georges Petit Gallery. The writer and journalist Henri Rochefort wrote of them: “Never has a palette contained so much sunlight. Never before have the ochres and the damp greens of rocks been applied with such intensity under the sky. This is not Impressionism, but it is truly impressive.” Sorolla realised that light and its transitory reflections modify the objects they bathe, only for a fleeting instant. His interest was always to capture the moment with his brushes. This concern led many to call him an Impressionist, a label that Sorolla always denied being one.
Sorolla always had a maxim: paint nature as it is. However, she was not always understood and had detractors. Conservatives criticized him for his lack of interpretation of the detail. And, on the other hand, several groups of intellectuals believed that Sorolla’s painting was empty of content. The superficiality that they reproached him for was not due to a lack of intellectual or artistic talent, but was due to an intentional and positive attitude adopted with full awareness by the painter. This issue is addressed in the essays by Carmen Gracia, professor of art history at the University of Valencia.
Joaquín Sorolla, like his contemporaries, painted social themes, his last work being ‘Sad Inheritance’ from 1899. From this date onwards the artist became a painter of the sea and beaches, nature and people, which is the theme of the exhibition. As Sorolla himself wrote: ‘Solid on my foundation, I began to create, without any fear, my way of doing things, good or bad, I do not know; but sincere, real, a reflection of what I saw with my eyes and felt by my heart; the exact manifestation of what I believed to be art. Until my ‘Return from Fishing’ I did not see the ideal I was pursuing revealed to me in all its breadth. My only desire was to create a frank painting that interpreted nature as it truly is, as it should be seen.’ In this way, the painter produced an extensive production that included the elements that have marked his best-known work, such as the sea, the rocky landscapes of the Jávea coast, bathers, children and the activities of people linked to the sea.
Sorolla realized that light and its transient reflections modify the objects they bathe, only for a fleeting instant. His interest was always to capture the moment with his brushes.
Painting light was Sorolla’s passion. The sketches are not sketches of larger canvases, but are generally pictorial notes taken quickly from nature to capture, with maximum immediacy, moments of movement and light. They contain the key that will lead to Joaquín Sorolla’s painting. The essence of what the artist was pursuing. The basis on which he builds the techniques and mastery that he will later apply to larger canvases.
The outdoors and the sun vibrate in his painting. The sea summarizes in itself the permanent vitality of the painter, it is a source of constant mutations of light, color and movement and is the center of the most varied human tasks that live in it and for it. Sorolla always saw the sea from the land. He didn’t even like to embark. He was linked to the beaches, their landscapes and coasts. His gaze fell on the rocky cliffs or the reflection of the sun on the sea.
THE TOKEN
In Sorolla’s sea with Manuel Vicent.
Joaquin Sorolla. Goya-Camón Aznar Museum of the Ibercaja Foundation. Until September 22.
