Joaquín Sorolla facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joaquín Sorolla
Joaquín Sorolla i Bastida
Platinum print of Sorolla by Gertrude Käsebier, c1908
Born	Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida 27 February 1863 Valencia, Spain
Died	10 August 1923(1923-08-10) (aged 60) Madrid, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Known for	Painting, Landscape art
Movement	Impressionism, Luminism

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (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 characterized by a representation of the people and landscape under the bright sunlight of his native land and sunlit water.

Early life

Joaquín Sorolla was born on February 27, 1863 in Valencia, Spain. Sorolla was the eldest child born to a tradesman, also named Joaquin Sorolla, and his wife, Concepción Bastida. His sister, Concha, was born a year later. In August 1865, both children were orphaned when their parents died, possibly from cholera. They were thereafter cared for by their maternal aunt and uncle, a locksmith.

He received his initial art education at the age of 9 in his native town. At the age of eighteen he traveled to Madrid, studying master paintings in the Museo del Prado. After completing his military service, Sorolla, at age twenty-two, obtained a grant which enabled a four-year term to study painting in Rome, Italy. A long trip to Paris in 1885 provided his first exposure to modern painting.

In 1888, Sorolla returned to Valencia to marry Clotilde García del Castillo, whom he had first met in 1879. By 1895, they would have three children together. They moved to Madrid, and for the next decade Sorolla's efforts as an artist were focused 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.

His first striking success was achieved with Another Marguerite (1892), which was awarded a gold medal at the National Exhibition in Madrid, then first prize at the Chicago International Exhibition, where it was acquired and subsequently donated to the Washington University Museum in St. Louis, Missouri.

He soon rose to general fame and became the acknowledged head of the modern Spanish school of painting. His picture The Return from Fishing (1894) was much admired at the Paris Salon and was acquired by the state for the Musée du Luxembourg. It indicated the direction of his mature output.

Sorolla painted two masterpieces in 1897 linking art and science: Portrait of Dr. Simarro at the microscope and A Research. These paintings were presented at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts held in Madrid in that year and Sorolla won the Prize of Honor. These paintings may be among the most outstanding world paintings of this genre.

Images for kids

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  The death of Pedro Velarde y Santillán during the defence of the Monteleon Artillery Barracks, 1884, Museo del Prado, Madrid

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  My Wife and Daughters in the Garden or "Mi Esposa e Hijas en el Jardín" which is the original name, 1910

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  American President William Howard Taft, 1909, Taft Museum of Art

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  Portrait of Dr Simarro at the microscope, 1897 (Luis Simarro Legacy Trust, Fundación General, Complutense University)

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  Joaquín Sorolla García vestido de blanco, 1896. Sorolla Museum, Madrid. The painter's son, "dressed in white".

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  Children on the Seashore, 1903. In the upper right corner, Sorolla has included an oblique reference to another favorite theme, oxen pulling fishing boats in to shore. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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  Señora de Sorolla in Black, 1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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  Beach at Valencia, 1908.

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  The Horse’s Bath, 1909. Sorolla Museum, Madrid.

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  Walk on the Beach or Paseo a orillas del mar, 1909. Sorolla Museum, Madrid.

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  Robert Bacon, 1909 (U.S. Department of State).

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  Castilla or La fiesta del pan, 1913. First to be completed of Vision of Spain, 14 murals at the Hispanic Society in Manhattan.

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  Niña, 1904. Museo Nacional de la Habana, Cuba.