Museo Carmen Thyssen

Joaquín Sorolla, an indefatigable painter and tireless traveller with a curious and cosmopolitan nature and an enquiring mind, shaped a particular lifestyle marked by constant wanderings. Over the years he continually explored the world within his reach. And painting was always the main reason for his trips. Sorolla liked to work from life: he was a plein-air painter, an approach that involved moving around, travelling and setting up his easel and canvas in front of the place or scene he wished to depict. He was not the kind of painter who enjoyed working in the studio; he was a painter of action.

Of the countless places Sorolla visited (and painted) in Spain, Andalusia was unquestionably one of the most important. Between 1902 and 1918 Sorolla made constant and numerous trips around Andalusia, touring the provinces of Málaga, Granada, Seville, Huelva, Córdoba and Cádiz and visiting their towns and cities as well as their villages. His fascination with the region’s landscapes, his admiration for its monuments, and his interest in its people and customs were reflected in a very large number of unmistakable works. This exhibition offers a small but significant example of how Andalusia attracted Sorolla’s attention and admiration.

In contrast to his classic seascapes or the cheerful beach pictures he painted by the sea in his native Valencia or his scenes of elegant summer resorts on the Cantabrian coast, Sorolla's production in southern Spain was more varied and lyrical in all respects. The diversity and intensity of his subject matter can be seen, for example, in the breathtaking monumentality of the landscape of the Alhambra in Granada with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background; in the intimate silence of the gardens of the Reales Alcázares in Seville; in the merry-making of the cafés with entertainment and the racial beauty of the dancers; in the solemnity of the Holy Week processions; and in the picturesqueness of Málaga’s coast. The worlds of work, leisure, festivities, popular religion…

In Andalusia, Sorolla imbued himself with everything he saw and painted it all, always in his unmistakable and masterful style in which light was of paramount importance.

This exhibition is part of the official programme of events commemorating the centenary of Joaquín Sorolla’s death.

Image: Joaquín Sorolla, Bailaora flamenca, 1914. Oil on canvas, 206,5 x 100 cm. Museo Sorolla, Madrid