A Sea of Stories
Sorolla Text Carme Grau Illustrations JĂşlio Aliau
J
oaquim Sorolla is known as the painter
The Boy Who Wanted to Paint
many paintings connected to the sea-
Joaquim Sorolla i Bastida was born in
figures in them are always bathed in an
died during an epidemic when he was
of light and the sea. His work includes
side, particularly the Mediterranean. The intense, bright light. The predominant
colours are blue, purple, pink, orange and green, but above all white. Sorolla did not
like black at all. His brushstrokes are long, quick and energetic. This is because Sorolla
Valencia on 28th February 1863. His parents
very little: he was just two years old and his sister Concha was only one. The two
orphans went to live with their mother’s sister, Isabel, and her husband, JosÊ.
was in a hurry: he wanted to capture the
Sorolla was known as Ximet when he was
photograph.
decided it would be a good idea to teach
moment he was painting as if it were a
Sorolla was born in Valencia, beside the
Mediterranean Sea. But when he grew up
he went to live in Madrid. His house is now a museum dedicated to the artist. If you go there, you will sense a pervasive clarity. The house-museum is spacious and bright, with
a beautiful garden designed by Sorolla himself, who took his inspiration from the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada and the Alcazar in Seville. He lived in the house
with his wife Clotilde and their three
children: Maria Clotilde, Joaquim and Elena. Sorolla had his studio inside the house and frequently painted his beloved garden.
small and as he grew older, his uncle
him his trade as a locksmith. But he and his
wife soon saw that Ximet had a great
talent for drawing and painting, so they enrolled him in the Artisans School, where
he took art classes every evening. Although he made a considerable effort to study
language, maths and geography at school
in the mornings, where he studied with other children of his age, he could not take his mind off drawing and painting. He was
so good at it that the Artisans School gave him a diploma and a box of paints as a reward for his dedication.
This accolade meant he was able to apply
great artists such as Michelangelo, who
After Rome, Sorolla travelled to Paris. In
on the road to becoming the painter of light
Authority to go to Rome. There he studied
the master who created The School of Athens.
of the painters known as Impressionists, who
found his personal style that would convert
for a grant from the Valencia Provincial
classical art, in other words all the art left to us by the Romans: temples, amphithea-
tres, triumphal arches, sculptures, mosaics and paintings. He also learnt more about
Renaissance art, examining the work of
painted the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael, While he was living in Italy, Sorolla visited
the most important museums in the coun-
try and met many other contemporary
artists. He never stopped studying and learning.
the French capital he entered the world placed an emphasis on colour, light, loose brushstrokes and painting au plein air
(creating art outside in the fresh air). All
these discoveries influenced Sorolla and he changed his painting methods: he was
and the sea. However, he had not quite yet him into an artist of global fame. Around this
time, he married Clotilde GarcĂa, with whom
he had been in love since he was quite young. They were a very close couple and she accompanied him on all his travels. Clotilde is depicted in many of Sorolla’s paintings and drawings.
An Individual Style
of the time, as well as having a predilection
One of the artist’s journeys took him back
which were sometimes very large. So much
Settled in Madrid with his family, Sorolla
these first impressions served as the basis
movement
carry all his equipment and put up the
continued to paint. But he also travelled of-
ten and took advantage of his trips to draw what he saw in the cafés, restaurants and streets of the places he visited. He observed
everything around him and sometimes even did his sketches without looking at the paper or lifting his pencil. He was very fond
of drawing the hats worn by the women
for drawing and painting gardens. Many of
for paintings when he returned home. Joaquim also did sketches throughout his
life, especially of activities and events
connected to his family. He liked to draw
with a pencil or with charcoal, sketching in notebooks or on any piece of paper he could find. He even drew on the back of menus at the restaurants he frequented.
to Paris, where he discovered a new artistic called
Luminism, meaning
‘light’. This style placed particular emphasis
on the effect of light over the landscape and figures in paintings. Sorolla was fascinated by this technique and began researching
into how he could represent natural light in his paintings the way he wanted to.
The artist spent his summers in Valencia and Xabia. Each day he went to the same
beach with his easel, paints and canvases,
so that several men often had to help him awnings and parasols needed to protect
the paintings from the sun and wind. On more than one occasion a gust blew
the canvases over. But Sorolla thoroughly enjoyed these outdoor painting sessions and thought that all the preparations were
worth the trouble because it was the only
way to capture the light present in the reflections of the sun’s rays and the transparency of the water.