Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - And They Still Say Fish Are Expensive! [1894]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - And They Still Say Fish Are Expensive! [1894], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Inside a ship, two aged fisherman with serious, worried expressions tend to a younger one who lies on the deck after an accident. A protective medal hanging from the younger one's torso is supposed to ward off seagoing misfortunes like the one he has just suffered. Various fishing implements and even some fish are visible around the figures. This subject stems from the artist's deep social concerns. The suffering of maritime workers ties in with other paintings Sorolla made around 1890. Here it is directly inspired by the view of that subject offered by writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez in his novel Flor de Mayo.

The drawing is rigorous and descriptive, but the tradition of Velasquez appears in the use of colour, where ochres predominate. The composition is unbalanced toward one side, giving it great depth. And some aspects, such as the warm lighting coming from the hatchway, foreshadow the importance light will have in this artist's later works.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 151.5 x 204 cm]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - Boys on the Beach [1910]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - Boys on the Beach [1910], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Three nude boys lie face-down on the beach, enjoying the tail end of the tranquil waves. In this work, Sorolla combines two subjects that were objects of his attention on numerous occasions: children and the beach. These light-filled scenes definitively marked the esthetic that made this artist so popular. Approached with an exquisite analysis, colour is another of the characteristics of his outdoor scenes. Here, the blond hair of the boy in the centre of the composition stands out, and its colour mixes with that of the warm sand. The long, juicy brushstrokes build the painting with touches of great expressivity.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 118 x 185 cm]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - The Bath, Jávea [1905]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - The Bath, Jávea 1905, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Sorolla (Valencia, 1863 - Cercedilla, 1923) was a precocious draftsman, who, at the age of fifteen, enrolled in the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia. Later, after studying in Rome and Paris, he settled in Valencia, where he developed the high-keyed painterly style for which he is famous. This style resulted from a variety of influences, including Impressionism and the work of Adolph Menzel (1815–1905) and Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884). The seacoast town of Jávea, south of Valencia, provided Sorolla with the subjects for many of his paintings. Some of the most popular were scenes of children swimming. By the early years of the twentieth century, Sorolla had achieved an international reputation.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 128.3 cm]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - Señora de Sorolla [1906]

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida - Señora de Sorolla [1906], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Clotilde de Sorolla, the wife of the painter, was the daughter of his friend and patron Don Antonio García. The Museum acquired the present painting in 1909, when Sorolla's immense reputation in Spain extended to New York. Between 1911 and 1920, Sorolla completed a series of fourteen mural panels for the Hispanic Society of America, New York.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 186.7 x 118.7 cm]