Tell the long and intense life of Joaquín Sorolla Bastida (1863-1923) through a hundred of the objects that the painter treasured. That is the proposal of ‘Sorolla in 100 objects’, an exhibition with which the Sorolla Museum and its foundation culminate the program … of the centenary of the artist’s death. The exhibition, which includes 25 unpublished pieces, 9 of them restored for the occasion, is a vital journey through all of Sorolla’s profiles. Along with his most personal objects, there are sculptures by Rodin or paintings by Sargent and some of the painter’s colleagues and disciples.
The Sorolla Centennial has already attracted 1.5 million visitors to the almost 40 exhibitions scheduled over the past year. The Sorolla Museum broke its record with more than 345,000 visits in 2023, 40% more than in 2022.
Covadonga Pitarch Angulo is the curator of the exhibition, on display until September 29. Through pieces from the museum’s collection and three loans, he approaches the figure of the ‘painter of light’ “through one hundred microstories woven through the materiality of the objects with which he surrounded his existence.”
The curator has carried out meticulous research to reach the soul of the painter through everyday, curious, rare or exotic objects treasured by the artist and his family. There are letters, photographs, drawings, paintings, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, or documents, such as the painter’s passport. Also objects collected by Sorolla – the museum preserves 1,300 – such as a caliphal capital from the 10th century or a relief of the Holy Trinity from the 16th century that he integrated into his library.
“The pieces transmit personal memories, family relationships, professional friendships, collecting passions, roots or aspirations and today they make up the essence of the Sorolla Museum,” says Pitarch, who has included paintings by Fortuny or Beruete.
Fragmentary
Divided into 16 sections, the exhibition “traces a somewhat disordered and necessarily fragmentary biography” of the brilliant Valencian painter. It opens with the story of his childhood: ‘From tragedy to happiness. The painter’s families’. He delves into his younger years in ‘Rome’, the city where he studied and forged important friendships. ‘A Valencian in Madrid’ illustrates Sorolla’s intense attachment to his homeland. ‘A path to follow’ and ‘The Valencian school’ delve both into his sources of inspiration and into his role as the group’s greatest exponent.
‘The library of Joaquín Sorolla’ offers a selection of the more than 700 books that he treasured, while ‘Artist among Artists’ shows works by colleagues such as John Singer Sargent or Auguste Rodin, with whom he exchanged works and gifts. ‘Exoticisms’ shows that, as a collector, his interests were not limited to Western art. His teaching work can be seen in ‘The Disciples’, with works by Manuel Benedito or Tomás Murillo, among other ‘Sorollistas’. He also had several Spanish and foreign disciples trained in his workshop, such as Yvonne Serruys, whose pieces make up the ‘Women Artists’ section. The works of his daughters María and Elena, painter and sculptor, along with those of his brother Joaquín, are brought together in ‘The Painter’s Children’.
Cuadra, John Singer Sargent (1903), Sorolla Museum; Caricature of Sorolla, Joaquín Tellechea y Turrillos (1918) Sorolla Museum; Self-portrait, Joaquín Sorolla Bastida (1909), Sorolla Museum
‘A painter collector’ and ‘Fascination with the popular’ delve into these facets, to close the tour with ‘Success’ and ‘The last brush strokes’, about the popularity that Sorolla enjoyed in life, through medals, caricatures and photographs. The last portrait he made, that of Mabel Rick, is the painting that closes the exhibition.
This will be the last exhibition held in the museum before beginning rehabilitation work on an expansion and rehabilitation project of the Ministry of Culture designed by the Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos studio, and which plans to open its doors in 2025 as the culmination of the centenary. It happens to the ‘Sorolla’ samples. Orígenes’, ‘Sorolla is dead!, Long live Sorolla!’, ‘In the sea of Sorolla with Manuel Vicent’ and ‘Sorolla, traveling to paint. Another vision of Spain’, which together added 372,350 visitors and allowed the museum to break its record of visits.
Palacios y Museos and the Sorolla Museum Foundation publish an extensive book-catalogue with editing by the curator and the collaboration of seventy-two specialists. of the most famous painters of their time and their art, remains today, one hundred years after his death, one of the most appreciated artistic ensembles of our culture.
