Sorolla y Bastida

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida

(b Valencia, 27 Feb 1863; d Cercedilla, nr Madrid, 10 Aug 1923). Spanish painter.

He studied (1878–80) at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Valencia, initially also attending the Escuela de Artesanos. He was influenced by the work of the previous generation of Valencian painters, especially Francisco Domingo y Marqués, who drew his attention to 17th-century Spanish realism. Also important at this stage in Sorolla’s development was the impact of the work of Ignacio Pinazo Camarlech, whose paintings prompted Sorolla to work out of doors, and that of Emilio Sala Francés.

Sorolla first visited Madrid in 1881, for the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. In the Prado at that time he made many copies from the works of Velázquez and Juan de Ribera; he was interested particularly in Velázquez’s treatment of light and in the vigour of execution of Ribera. A capacity to combine contemporary with traditional approaches is to be found in his 2nd of May (1884; Madrid, Mus. Sorolla), where Pinazo Camarlech’s plein-air principles are applied to a traditional historical composition on the theme of the heroic defence of Madrid against Napoleon’s troops. From this point onwards Sorolla started to seek out his own path between idealizing and realistic tendencies.