Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light


Sun drenched exhibition at the National Gallery of work by the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida.

Although there were more somber works in this show the ones which are most striking and have stuck with me are those filled with sunshine and a sense of light. I particularly loved a room of paintings from the seaside where you could almost feel the heat. There was one of boys lying on the edge of the sea and I loved the way the light bounced off their skin and how their limbs were slightly submerged in the sand.

I also got a sense of family from him. The first room included a self-portrait he painted to leave with his wife when he was away which I found very touching. I liked a picture of his daughter in a Fortuny dress and one of his wife based on the Rokeby Venus which he had seen in situ at Rokeby Hall as well as in the National Gallery.

This wasn’t the only nod to Velázquez. There was a take on Las Meninas in a picture of a fellow artist sketching his wife and child with the artist reflected in the mirror and Sorolla himself just glimpsed in the same mirror. He nodded to Goya too in his commission for the Hispanic Society of America, a huge mural showing the regional costumes and customs of Spain. The exhibition had some of large preliminary works for this and a photograph of the whole work in situ.  

My favourite picture was the one used for the poster called “Sewing the Sail” which had a real sense of joy in it as people gathered round a swathe of white sail to mend it. I felt there would have been food, drink and a party involved.

Closes on 7 Jul y 2019.

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