Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Two Sisters, Valencia, 1909. The Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of Mrs. William Stanley North in memory of William Stanley North.
The Painter’s Eye featuring Two Sisters, Valencia by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida
“I hate darkness. Claude Monet once said that painting in general did not have light enough in it. I agree with him. We painters, however, can never reproduce sunlight as it really is. I can only approach the truth of it.” –Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida
Just before you leave the Impressionist galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago – right next to the doorway, in fact – this very large painting will likely stop you in your tracks. Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) was one of Spain’s most celebrated painters. And it was the paintings of sun-drenched beaches such as this work that made him an international sensation in the early 1900s.
In 1909, his New York exhibition of 360-plus oils drew a record breaking crowd of 160,000 visitors. That exhibit moved on to Chicago, and it’s a good bet this painting was acquired at that time. Only in recent years has Sorolla regained some of his previous acclaim.
Lush, exuberant use of paint, applied with speed and bravura, was Sorolla’s hallmark. Yet his early rigorous academic training underlies the seemingly effortless and instantaneous treatment of light. He and painters like him, such as John Singer Sargent and Sweden’s Anders Zorn, took the color ideas of Impressionism and grafted them to the more realist ideas of solid drawing. Sorolla would do small studies before painting the large works from life, using a heavy support system and assistants to keep the wind from blowing the canvas away.
This dynamic worker produced a huge quantity of work in his lifetime. His home in Madrid is now a museum. Visit if you ever get the chance.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
