Are you interested in a country called Spain, that it is much more than bullfighters and flamenco? Do you feel like knowing something more about its culture, people, idiosyncrasy or its current situation? Please, come in

Thanks to these friends for following

Tuesday 6 April 2010

SOROLLA, THE VALENCIAN PAINTER OF THE LIGHT


  Bajo el toldo. Zarauz

One of my favourite painters is Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, a Spanish painter born in Valencia (1863-1923), who is very well known for his paintings of people and landscapes under the sunlight in his native land. His style is unique and very joyous.

Their paintings transport you to the sunny Mediterranean sea as soon as you have a look at one of them. His use of color, with a special yuxtaposition of colors and his depiction of sunlight on water are absolutely wonderful.

He started his career in Spain, then to Europe and finally to America. He was initially seen as a realist radical who dared to paint ordinary people and later as a realist reactionary in a time of triumph of expressionism, cubism and modernism. And though he has been labelled as impressionist sometimes that is not quite right, his style is unique, I read in some place that his style should be called sorollism and I really agree!

Last year the biggest exhibition of Sorolla’s paintings ever made took place in Prado Museum (Madrid) during several months. But although Sorolla was Valentian, his House-Museum (a very beautiful house, by the way) is in Madrid where he lived for long periods. I leave here the link in case any of you wants to have a look. It is worth it!



And here I also leave some samples of his paintings in order to you to be able to enjoy and decide about in which style to frame him, if you can……..


 Saliendo del baño

 Niñas en el mar

Paseo a orillas del mar

La siesta

Las dos hermanas

Maria

La bata rosa

Antonio Garcia en la playa

Charla de señoras
NOT BY SOROLLA  (See blog posts comments below)
by the way, does anybody know who painted this painting, please?


11 comments:

  1. I love these paintings! They remind me of another artist, but I can't remember the name. There's one that is very popular with a woman on the beach with a parasol.

    Thank you for stopping by my blog yesterday! I'll be back!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jill, I am very glad you liked the Sorolla paintings, I think the one you talk about could be painted by Eugene Boudin or another one by Monet, perhaps. And thanks for your visit too, you'll be very welcome here as often as you like. Hugs and kisses!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Nieves
    Great blog!
    I too am a great admirer of Sorolla and I thought that you might be interested to have a look at a web site I have set up to provide further information on his life and work at www.sorollapaintings.com
    I love all the paintings you have posted above with the exception of the last one - are you sure that is really a Sorolla?
    If it is then at least it gives me heart that all us artists can have an off day!
    Kind regards
    Iain (Vellacott)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Iain, I am really very glad you came here, I am really happy and pleased that such an admirer (and artist as well!) of Sorolla has known my blog. I have seen your web about Sorolla and of course I'll put a link to it in an honour place to be visited for other Sorolla admirers. Ah! I'm sorry to tell that Charla de señoras (Women chat) is a Sorolla painting as you can see here:

    http://arteycritica.wordpress.com/fotografia-galeria-de-la-vida-en-pintura-joaquin-sorolla/

    About your paintings, as far as I have seen, they are really beautiful, but I'll visit your web often from today on.

    Very pleased to meet you Iain and kind regards and be welcome here as often as you wish!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Nieves
    I would put money on that NOT being a Sorolla!
    But it is difficult to prove a negative and I must paint!
    Kind regards
    Iain

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have had a quick flick around the web but can't find who did paint that picture - but I am positive it was not Sorolla - it just doesn't have the quality, the light, the edges, the "soul" of his work (and now I am really hoping that ho-one will be able to disprove me!)
    I also looked on the blog page you mentioned and there is another picture there that I believe is not by JS but by some other chocolate box painter!
    Keep up the blogging!
    All the best
    Iain

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well Iain, you are probably right after all!

    I had an idea this morning and it was to send an email (I could not get in touch with them by phone) to Sorolla Museum, asking them about the matter and they have answered me telling ........ to be continued.....!
    jajaja seriously, I'll resend you the email to some mail of yours in your blog, but they do not seem to know the painting titled "Charla de mujeres", so just right now I am going to take it out from my post!

    But now I have really a big doubt: who did paint that painting then??

    Have a nice weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Nieves. I am pleased that I was right!
    The only problem with taking it out from above is that now it looks like in my posts I was saying that I was not sure whether the painting of Antonio Garcia was really by Sorolla - and that is a wonderful portrait of the highest quality, which I stood in front of for a good 20 minutes at the Prado exhibition last year.
    Incidentally, Antonio Garcia was JS's father-in-law and an important Valencian photographer - leading to the suggestion in some quarters that Sorolla may have made use of photography for some of his paintings.
    So perhaps you could leave the painting in and mark it as something like "NOT by Sorolla - see blog posts below".
    Best
    Iain

    ReplyDelete
  9. You are right Iain! Very sensible thought! Kind regards,

    ReplyDelete
  10. i have always loves Sorolla's work and it was good to see some paintings on your blog that i have not come across before. thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Finally the mistery about the painting not painted by Sorolla, included erroneously in this Sorolla post, was solved out! The painter is called Jose Villegas y Cordero (who was born in Seville) and the title of the painting is "Noticias de él" (News from him).

    ReplyDelete

Welcome and thank you very much for taking the time to leave the gift of your comment. Have a nice day!

Bienvenido y muchas gracias por dejarme el regalo de tu comentario. ¡Que tengas un gran dia!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...