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25/5/2009

Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923)

Prado Museum, Madrid

Curator: José Luis Díez, Head of 19th Painting Department and Javier Barón, 19th Painting Department

The Museo del Prado is presenting the largest and most important retrospective ever to be devoted to the work of Joaquín Sorolla, the most internationally celebrated Spanish painter of the XIX century. The exhibition includes more than 100 paintings by the artist and will offer a comprehensive overview of his finest works, among them all of his great masterpieces. They include the group of panels entitled Visions of Spain, painted for the Hispanic Society of America and brought to Spain by Bancaja in 2007. This exceptional exhibition has benefited from the sponsorship of Bancaja, who in addition to their significant undertaking as organising body of the exhibition “Sorolla. Vision of Spain” that was shown to great acclaim in various Spanish cities, has now made a further contribution in the form of their collaboration with this major exhibition project at the Prado.

The exhibition “Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923)” (Museo del Prado, 26 May to 6 September 2009) offers the visiting public an outstanding opportunity to see more than 100 paintings by the great Valencian master in what will constitute the most comprehensive and ambitious survey of his finest works. Among the 102 paintings on display, loaned from museums and collections worldwide, will be all the masterpieces by Sorolla that brought him most fame. They include Return from Fishing (1894), loaned by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris; Sewing the Sail (1896), from the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’Pesaro in Venice; Sad Inheritance (1899), from the Bancaja Collection; Evening Sun (1903), from The Hispanic Society of America in New York, which is returning to Spain for the first time since it was sold to New York by the artist himself; The Photographer Christian Franzen (1903), from the Lorenzana Collection; Female Nude (1902), and The white Boat. Jávea (1905), both from a private collection.

The exhibition will naturally also include important examples of Sorolla’s work from the Prado’s own collection, including And they still say Fish is expensive! (1894), and Boys on the Beach (1909), as well as a large number of paintings from the Museo Sorolla in Madrid, including The Horse’s Bath (1909), Strolling along the Sea Shore (1909), and The Pink Gown (1916). The exhibition will also feature the dazzling group of fourteen monumental panels entitled Visions of Spain, painted by Sorolla for the Hispanic Society of America in New York. They have travelled for the first time in their history for exhibition in Spain through the agreement reached with Bancaja. The large number of works by Sorolla assembled at the Prado, all of which are considered masterpieces by experts on the artist, will make this exhibition unique and unrepeatable.

Over the last few decades Sorolla has been the subject of study in the form of numerous exhibitions and other projects, but there has not been a major retrospective of this type since the one devoted to the artist in 1963 in the Casón del Buen Retiro, organised by the Ministry of Science and Education. In addition, the present exhibition, the first to be devoted to Sorolla by the Prado, emphasises the idea of interpreting him as the last great master within its collections. Sorolla will thus be seen to fall within the great tradition of the Spanish School through an exhibition of the same scale, importance and scholarly rigour as the others devoted to the leading names of Spanish art held at the Prado over the years, such as those on Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, El Greco, Zurbarán and Goya.

The layout of the exhibition
The exhibition has a fundamentally chronological structure, organised into various sections that emphasise the importance of the various themes and subjects that Sorolla depicted at different periods in his career. For example, there will be a space dedicated to the paintings of social themes that brought the artist fame in the last decades of the 19th century. This is followed by a sizeable group of portraits and a nude that reveal the profound influence of Velázquez on his compositions during the early years of the 20th century. Another area will display his finest beach scenes, painted in 1908 and 1909. Due to their particular importance and large size, the fourteen panels of Visions of Spain painted for the Hispanic Society of America will fill an entire room of the four occupied by the exhibition. This spectacular group was the most complex and important decorative scheme of Sorolla’s entire career and can also be seen as an epilogue and summary of his entire oeuvre. The exhibition ends with examples of his landscape paintings.

The catalogue
The accompanying catalogue, published in English and Spanish (co-published with El Viso), includes the following essays: Joaquín Sorolla, Painter, by José Luis Díez and Javier Barón, the exhibition’s curators; Sorolla and Spanish Painting of his Day, by Francisco Javier Pérez Rojas; Sorolla and International Painting of his Day, by Carlos Reyero; and Sorolla’s Artistic Personality, by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the artist’s great-grand-daughter. In addition to these essays and the entries on the works, the catalogue includes four appendices, one on Joaquín Sorolla’s Critical Fortunes, by Felipe Garín and Facundo Tomás, a Biographical Chronology of Joaquín Sorolla, also by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, a bibliographical appendix and another on the exhibitions held on the artist.

The 19th Century in the Prado
The inauguration of the galleries in the new Jerónimos Building was marked by the presentation of the exhibition The 19th Century in the Prado. In addition, the Museum has decided to incorporate 19th-century works from the collection into the permanent display in the Villanueva Building. Both facts reveal the Museo del Prado’s commitment to promoting knowledge and study of 19th-century art through research projects and exhibitions that are contributing to a revision and reassessment of the leading artists and movements of this period of Spanish art, on which much of the art of the present day is founded.

The present retrospective devoted to “Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923)”, the most internationally celebrated Spanish painter of his day and one of the great figures in the history of Spanish art, is thus a clear demonstration of the Museum’s strategy in this regard.

Image: The Horse’s BathOil on canvas, 205 x 250 cm. 1909. Madrid, Museo Sorolla

Rooms: Jerónimos Building A, B, C y D

Museo Nacional del Prado. Calle Ruiz de Alarcón 23. Madrid 28014
Opening hours
From Tuesday to Sunday: 9.00 – 20.00 (including holidays)
Closed: On Mondays throughout the year (including holidays)

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