JOAQUIN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA

Joaquin Sorolla is a Spanish artist, born in Valencia on 27-02-1863 and died in Madrid on 10-
08-1923. He came from a poor family. His parents died when he was only 2 years old and he
was taken care of by a maternal aunt and uncle.

He started studying art at 9 years old and at 18 he travelled to Madrid to study the important
artworks at the Prado Museum. At 22 he obtained a grant which allowed him to study during 4
years in Rome. After that he went to Paris where he made his first contact with modern
painting.

His art work is considered impressionism and luminism. One of his favourite and most used
colours is white, which allowed him to achieve this incredible luminosity in his work, giving it
that special touch of translucent fabrics, to easily distinguish his work from others.

Juaquin Sorolla is associated with the impressionism and post-impressionism, which then gives
way to the contemporary art. His best works were painted in open air and vividly portray the
sunny seashore of Valencia, his birthplace.

After the Bath, 1908, oil on canvas, 176 x 111.5 cm

After the Bath is a painting that shows a boy wrapping a sheet of fabric around a girl on a
sunny day in a Valencian beach, in the background there also seems to be a few people in the
ocean but it doesn’t look too crowded. What really stands out is the form, the texture and the
transparency of the fabrics worn by the woman on the beach. The whole painting gives a
feeling of light, quiet and relaxation on a beautiful sunny day. Sorolla cropped his compositions
as well as using water and reflection to show his skills

We can see the lines are very soft and silky with a very flowing composition. And the white
fabric helps the desaturated yellow of the dress stand out from the blue ocean. The contrast
between the dark tonal values from the ocean and the light tonal values from the white fabric
guides our eyes to the focal point(the girl) the steelyard composition also creates depth
making it clear what the middle ground(the girl and the boy) and the background is. The style
is impressionist and luminist.

“After the bath” The theme of emerging from the water and the use of white fabrics and
transparencies to experiment with colour and light are often seen in the artist’s work. He
wants to reflect the intense light existing in his environment. This piece describes the caring
and protective relationship between the girl and the young boy holding the white fabric. Both
characters reflect happiness and comfort.

The things I like most in this piece is how well depicted the girl is against the white fabric, the
natural and mellow colours are very pleasing and the light creating beautiful and contrasting
tonal values on the white fabric. The light bouncing off the sea onto the two people brings the
whole piece together. The swirling movement of the waves that add so much more movement
to the painting too. I love how Sorolla captured perfectly the silky texture of the dress

I chose this artist´s work because we are developing our ideas for our theme wrapped and I
love how Juaquin Sorolla creates the ilusions of sheer fabrics to wrap people and it looks
beautiful with all the colours and light shining through the fabric and all the movement that is
created by the folds is outstanding.