Joaquín Sorolla
The present work was painted in a year that marked a turning point in Joaquin Sorolla’s career. In 1895 the Spanish artist sent his monumental masterpiece, The Return from Fishing, to the Paris Salon, where it received the highest honors possible for a painter from abroad and was purchased by the French state—the work now hangs in the Musée d’Orsay.
The present work epitomizes the large-scale, neoclassical murals that Sorolla was commissioned to paint in the earlier part of his career. Catering to the contemporary vogue for neo-Hellenism, Sorolla presents a lush Mediterranean coastal setting (not unlike his native Valencia) in springtime. Replete with flowers, Sorolla depicts two maidens in elegantly flowing white drapery, backlit by the sun. His talent for capturing the human form on a large scale in such murals ultimately led to the commission in 1911 of the Vision of Spain cycle, the artist’s masterpiece, held in the Hispanic Society, New York.
Today's painting is so light and luminous; don't forget to check other Sorolla's paintings in the Archive!
P.S. Here is a selection of Sorolla's best paintings to make you dream of the Mediterranean coast!
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