(Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida) Source: Don Kurtz / ARC
In a room full of artists the name of Sorolla came into the conversation. The place brightened up and a knowing "yes" was passed around.
You might say Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923) is an artist's artist. A Spaniard of Valencia, he switched in mid-career from sentimental scenes of religion and despair to a bright and optimistic manner--a bit Velasquez, a bit Sargent. Children and girls wet from the Spanish beaches, brave and dashing boys and men in the magic hour. Fast and fresh in his strokes (he painted 500, often large paintings in one three year period) his canvasses are filled with light, reflected light, luminous shadow, local color. Further, there's a kind of happenstance, compositional relaxation, and an unfinished and unresolved look about the work. He called his style "natural painting."
Sorolla is seldom mentioned in the art books. In his time he sold out shows in Madrid, Paris and New York--In the Hispanic Society show in 1909 there were 160,000 visitors in one month. "We must have Sorolla," said my friend and fellow artist Joe Blodgett, "He's the competition."
In the studios of our minds our masters become our rivals. Those who are our
betters are the ones we set to defeat. Aiming low eases the game, but greater
things happen when we are shooting toward our stars.
In our strange business there's often little personal contact or slogging through wet bunkers to beat a foe. For us it's a quiet and solitary campaign that starts in museums, galleries, books, on the internet, in front of nature herself, and in the daring reaches of our hearts.
Best regards,
Robert
PS "Nothing is stronger than nature. With nature in front of us we can do everything well." (Joaquin Sorolla)
Esoterica: There's a spectacularly exuberant multi-panel mural called "Visions of Spain" in the Museum of the Hispanic Society in New York. Commissioned by Archer Milton Huntington in 1912, it was Sorolla's last burst of creative energy.
An illustrated article on Sorolla by Peter Saint-Andre is at http://www.monadnock.net/essays/sorolla.html
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