SPANISH ARTISTS: Painting Sea and Sunlight

It is said that a room full of paintings is a room full of thoughts depicted by the artists through the colours. But if a room is full with the paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, it would look like a room filled with sunlight. Such was his love for sun and seashores.

Walk on the Beach

Born in Velentia, spain in 1863, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was fascinated by the natural beauties of the landscapes he lived in. He painted the sunlight falling on the sand and water with the same expertise he did the portraits of the royal family members. Sorolla's paintings of the bathers are some of the best paintings by a Spanish artist.

The Art: Keen observation and desire to learn new shades of the sunlight made his art much consolidated. When he visited Paris in 1989 and saw the paintings of master painters of past, he got an idea about how to infuse the effect of light onto canvases. This Spanish artists had exhibited his paintings in London, Paris, and other art centers of Europe. In one of his famous paintings, Walk on the Beach (1909), Joaquín Sorolla had showed his artistic prowess at the best. Look at the image of the painting given here. We can see how the mass of the sunlight is spread all over the frame. The figures of two women enjoying the pleasure of sunny day look extremely happy in the scene. The artist has depicted clothes in white colour, symbolizing peace and pleasure. While looking at the painting, we can see how the wind effect is depicted. See the fluttering clothes of the women. Clothes here look like waving sails of a boat.

Art and Contemporary Lifestyle

The artists always endeavour showing contemporary lifestyle of the people. They would not miss infusing the customs and choices of the people. Here in this painting, the painter has made the painting depicting the social custom of wearing hat and long skirts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This painting is a masterpiece due to the masterly showing of the sun, the light effect, and the fluttering fabric.

The Artist: Sorolla had never restricted his creative impulse and the appetite to do something wonderful. He was fond of painting the sunlight. He had received many commissions for portrait paintings. But he would make the person to be painted standing under the sun.

Girl on the Beach 1910
This painting depicts how Sorolla was fascinated by the beauty of sea, and how masterly he would paint the scenes at the sea. here the movement of child in the foreground and the powerful brush-strokes tell us the whole story about how the children would behaving at the beach. Sorolla would was very much particular about the model's attendance, too. For the painting María at La Granja (1907), he had his daughter standing under the heat of sun. Not only this but for the portrait painting known as Hussar’s Uniform (1907), he had requested King Alfonso XIII to stand in the open and under the heat of sun. Such was his desire to paint the portraits with full effects of the light.

The Style: If we look at some of his paintings, we can see that Sorolla’s art was influenced by two great painters, Velazquez and American painter John Singer Sargent. He was Sargent's a friend who admired his landscapes depicting American landscapes. Sorolla had gifted one of his paintings to John Sargent.

The Three Sails - 1903

In the painting Three Sails, we can see the same technique of depicting the persons and objects happening in and around the sea. As the title refers to the three sails in the water, it refers to also the three women walking on the beach. [Images courtesy Walk in Beach By Joaquín Sorolla Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923) Description Spanish painter Date of birth/death 27 February 1863(1863-02-27) 10 August 1923(1923-08-10) Location of birth/death Valencia, Spain Cercedilla, Madrid Work location Valencia, Paris, Rome, Madrid (Unknown) [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons , Girl on the Beach By Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (Christie's Images) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, Three Sails By Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923) Description Spanish painter Date of birth/death 27 February 1863(1863-02-27) 10 August 1923(1923-08-10) Location of birth/death Valencia, Spain Cercedilla, Madrid Work location Valencia, Paris, Rome, Madrid [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons , the fisherman, below Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]