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Joaquín Sorolla lost his parents at the age of two, who died of cholera. He grew up with his aunt. At first he learned a secure trade and became a locksmith. But since his master had noticed his artistic talent, he was able to take private drawing lessons. Sorolla's first exhibitions in Valencia were so successful that the state granted him a scholarship with which he could travel to Rome and Paris. Impressed by the French Impressionists, he began to paint in the same way. He always worked in the open air and mocked painting in the closed room of the studio, which he compared to a garage where the most one could do is repair work.
"I hate the dark. Monet once said that painting in general is not bright enough. I agree with him. But we painters can never reproduce sunlight as it really is. I can only approach the truth."
The artist's landscape paintings received greater attention. Painted in the open air, the genre pictures tell stories. Strong brushstrokes and pastose applications of paint capture the light and atmosphere of Sorolla's living environment. In 1909 he created the painting "Strandside Walk", which shows the radiant light of the Spanish coast and is reflected in the contrasting play of light and shadow. Joaquin Sorolla's wife and children were among the preferred motifs, often playful, captured in casual situations.
His most famous pictures, such as the Walk on the Beach of 1909 or Children on the Beach of Valencia of 1919, which show people by the sea, are therefore all bright, bathed in light and show the movement of the wind in the sitter's hair, waving cloths or the movement of the waves. Even during his lifetime, Sorolla's works received worldwide recognition and numerous awards. When Sorolla painted a picture in his garden, he suffered a stroke and remained hemiplegic until his death three years later.
Joaquín Sorolla lost his parents at the age of two, who died of cholera. He grew up with his aunt. At first he learned a secure trade and became a locksmith. But since his master had noticed his artistic talent, he was able to take private drawing lessons. Sorolla's first exhibitions in Valencia were so successful that the state granted him a scholarship with which he could travel to Rome and Paris. Impressed by the French Impressionists, he began to paint in the same way. He always worked in the open air and mocked painting in the closed room of the studio, which he compared to a garage where the most one could do is repair work.
"I hate the dark. Monet once said that painting in general is not bright enough. I agree with him. But we painters can never reproduce sunlight as it really is. I can only approach the truth."
The artist's landscape paintings received greater attention. Painted in the open air, the genre pictures tell stories. Strong brushstrokes and pastose applications of paint capture the light and atmosphere of Sorolla's living environment. In 1909 he created the painting "Strandside Walk", which shows the radiant light of the Spanish coast and is reflected in the contrasting play of light and shadow. Joaquin Sorolla's wife and children were among the preferred motifs, often playful, captured in casual situations.
His most famous pictures, such as the Walk on the Beach of 1909 or Children on the Beach of Valencia of 1919, which show people by the sea, are therefore all bright, bathed in light and show the movement of the wind in the sitter's hair, waving cloths or the movement of the waves. Even during his lifetime, Sorolla's works received worldwide recognition and numerous awards. When Sorolla painted a picture in his garden, he suffered a stroke and remained hemiplegic until his death three years later.