Sorolla and the Sea

Painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida grew up on the Valencian coast of Spain studying the Mediterranean light, landscape, and modern life. The people of Spain revered Sorolla as the nation’s last great traditional painter, and French Impressionist Claude Monet hailed the artist as a “master of light.” Combining precision with unmixed colors and free brushwork, Sorolla’s work impressively balances the Spanish tradition of Realism with the Modernist trends of the 20^th century. Sorolla and the Sea features approximately 40 works, on loan from The Hispanic Society Museum & Library for the first time in over 100 years.

This exhibition explores Sorolla’s lifelong connection to the sea and is organized into five sections that each examine a different aspect of this subject matter — from the artist’s life and work to his plein-air paintings and beach scenes, as well as the people of Spain from the fishermen to the regional traditions captured in the artist’s well-known series, Visions of Spain. Collectively, these works create a portal across the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean seaside of early 20th-century Spain.