Sorolla's Sketches

"Italian Landscape"
(c) Sorolla, 1884 (4.5 x 9 inches)

I recently wrote about Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (Sorolla), whom I called "the greatest Impressionist you've never head of". The post was so popular that I was inspired to write more.

"Italian Street"
(c) Sorolla, 1885 (5.5 x 3.5 inches)

I have been reading opinions of the critics who were reviewing Sorolla's work in the early 1900's. One consistent comment that really struck a chord with me concerns Sorolla's "sketches". By "sketches", I refer not to drawings, but rather to small, rapidly executed oil paintings. My tattered old book on Sorolla calls them "apuntes" ("small oil sketches"). Sometimes Sorolla referred to them simply as his "colour-notes".

"Levantine Landscape"
(c) Sorolla, 1888 (4.75 x 8 .5 inches)

I am a fan of small paintings, and I have always loved Sorolla's "apuntes". I was glad to read that I am not alone. One critic wrote in 1907 that Sorolla's little paintings that were "dashed off casually" were his most interesting. This critic thought that when Sorolla painted industriously and accurately, his work was "very respectable", but lost its special beauty. I sometimes feel the same way about my own paintings--it is hard to preserve the spontaneity and truth of a small plein air work when translating it into a large painting in the studio. (Not that I would dare compare myself to Sorolla, but it is comforting to think that others may have struggled with the same issues I do). Come to think of it, perhaps painting inside the studio is the root of my problem---Sorolla would have frowned on working in the studio, preferring at all times to paint outdoors in touch with the truth of nature.

"Street with Awnings in Valencia"
 (c) Sorolla, 1884 (5.25 x 3.75 inches)

Another critic called Sorolla's oil sketches "delightful little pictures--unsurpassably fresh".  But make no mistake--the fact that they were executed quickly does not mean that they were sloppy or poorly thought-out. To the contrary, the same critic noted that they "contained no touch that is not laid with science and feeling." It was Sorolla's wonderful technical and manual skill, plus his genius of color, that allowed him to capture such truthful impressions of the world around us. Enjoy!

PS: All quotes are from "Sorolla and his Critics" by Carmen Gracia, in The Painter Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida by Edmund Peel, (c) 1989.