Lot Essay
This work was executed in Jávea (Alicante). This same year, Joaquin Sorolla won the Grand Prix at the Universal Exhibition in Paris for his work Triste Herencia, Sad Inheritance painted at the beach in Valencia, near Jávea.
Sorolla first visited Jávea in 1896 where he was very impressed with its beauty and its contrast to Valencia. In a telegram to his wife on the day of his arrival, he wrote "Jávea is sublime, immense, the best place I know to paint...I will stay several days. If you were here (it would be) two months..." In a letter following the telegram, Sorolla expanded with, "This Jávea has everything I could desire and more, and if you could see the views from the house, you would not find the words to praise it; this emotion that dominates me, still leaves me speechless; this is everything, a mad dream, it is the same effect as living in the sea, on board a large boat. What a mistake not to come!! You would be so happy...you could enjoy (this) so much!...this is the place I have always dreamed of, sea and mountain, but what a sea!..." Sorolla returned here in 1898, 1900 and 1905, when he painted 112 views of Jávea, mostly executed between 1900 and 1905. In referring to these paintings, Bernardino de Pantorba wrote in his book La Vida y la Obra de Joaquín Sorolla, "In the splendid studies of the sea of Jávea, and particularly in the series of bathers, Sorolla, without adding colors to his palette, which, for every true colorist, are few, extends and multiplies the number of shades, as well as the number of daring contrasts. He obtains precious harmonies with blues and yellows, violets and cadmium, green and reds, without forgetting the very rich modulations of white, a color in which he knows how to add a personal touch. Golden reflections of the rocks in the transparent waters, sea spume on shadow, the foaming of the sun on the waves...tanned young bodies submerged in the rippling water; the capturing of iridescence; what eternally changes; what shines, evanescenses and escapes..."
Although early in date, our picture already achieves the technique and pictoral skill of Sorolla's mature works.
We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Sorolla first visited Jávea in 1896 where he was very impressed with its beauty and its contrast to Valencia. In a telegram to his wife on the day of his arrival, he wrote "Jávea is sublime, immense, the best place I know to paint...I will stay several days. If you were here (it would be) two months..." In a letter following the telegram, Sorolla expanded with, "This Jávea has everything I could desire and more, and if you could see the views from the house, you would not find the words to praise it; this emotion that dominates me, still leaves me speechless; this is everything, a mad dream, it is the same effect as living in the sea, on board a large boat. What a mistake not to come!! You would be so happy...you could enjoy (this) so much!...this is the place I have always dreamed of, sea and mountain, but what a sea!..." Sorolla returned here in 1898, 1900 and 1905, when he painted 112 views of Jávea, mostly executed between 1900 and 1905. In referring to these paintings, Bernardino de Pantorba wrote in his book La Vida y la Obra de Joaquín Sorolla, "In the splendid studies of the sea of Jávea, and particularly in the series of bathers, Sorolla, without adding colors to his palette, which, for every true colorist, are few, extends and multiplies the number of shades, as well as the number of daring contrasts. He obtains precious harmonies with blues and yellows, violets and cadmium, green and reds, without forgetting the very rich modulations of white, a color in which he knows how to add a personal touch. Golden reflections of the rocks in the transparent waters, sea spume on shadow, the foaming of the sun on the waves...tanned young bodies submerged in the rippling water; the capturing of iridescence; what eternally changes; what shines, evanescenses and escapes..."
Although early in date, our picture already achieves the technique and pictoral skill of Sorolla's mature works.
We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.