Sad Inheritance! facts for kids

Sad Inheritance! (Spanish: ¡Triste herencia!) is a famous oil painting created in 1899 by the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla. This large painting shows a group of children with disabilities on a beach. It was kept in a church in New York for many years before a bank in Spain bought it.

What the Painting Shows

The painting is very big, measuring about 2.1 meters tall and 2.85 meters wide. It shows many children who are sick or have disabilities. Some of them are using crutches because of a sickness called polio.

These children are on the Malvarrosa beach [es] in Valencia, Spain. A monk dressed in black brought them from a hospital called San Juan de Dios. They came to the beach to bathe in the seawater. This was a special treatment called thalassotherapy, which uses sea water to help people feel better. In the background of the painting, you can see some children already in the sea.

How Sorolla Got the Idea

Joaquín Sorolla himself saw this scene, which inspired him to paint it. He wrote about how he was sketching fishermen one morning when he saw the group of children and a monk by the sea.

He realized they were children from the San Juan de Dios Hospital. They were children with various health challenges, including those who were blind or had other disabilities. Sorolla felt sad when he saw them. He quickly asked the hospital director for permission to paint the scene right there on the beach.

Where the Painting Has Been

Sorolla showed Sad Inheritance! at a big art show in Paris in 1900. He won a grand prize there. He also won a medal of honor at an art exhibition in Madrid in 1901.

Sorolla wanted to sell the painting to the Spanish government for 40,000 pesetas. However, some politicians stopped the sale. In 1902, the painting was sold to an art dealer in New York for the same price.

Later, in 1904, it was sold to John E. Berwind. It was shown at the Hispanic Society of America in New York in 1909. Berwind then gave the painting to the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in New York, where it stayed for many years.

In 1981, the painting was sold again at an auction in New York. The Savings Bank of Valencia in Spain bought it for $240,000. Today, this bank is part of Bankia.

Sorolla also made some smaller studies, or sketches, of this painting. He gave one oil study to his friend William Laparra in 1906. Another sketch was given to John Singer Sargent in 1903. A third study was given to William Merritt Chase in 1906.

See also

In Spanish: Triste herencia para niños