DOI Heft:
No. 133 (April, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Williams, Leonard: Joaquin Sorolla and Spanish painting of to-day
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19881#0263
Joaquin Sorolla
without resistance the pert eclecticism of
Versailles. For close upon a century she is
content to ape the manners of her neighbours,
and then the realism which is the dominant
attribute of her painting as a whole asserts itself
afresh in Goya. He, however, is at the time its
only representative, albeit a great one. Later on
his influence reappears; but at his death his
countrymen, embroiled in civil wars and other
trouble, are too distracted to attend to art. As
soon as matters settle down, the noble though
extravagant impulse generated partly by the
French Revolution and partly by the War of
Spanish Independence, produces the painter of
history—Casado del Alisal, Rosales, Pradilla.
He, in his turn, surrenders to a very powerful
and vital " moment," the realism of this present
day, whose most gifted and triumphant leader is
Joaquin Sorolla.
The son of humble parents, and born at
Valencia in 1862, Sorolla was left an orphan in
early childhood and adopted by his uncle, Don
Jos£ Piqueres. Sefior Piqueres, a locksmith,
would doubtless have brought him up to his own
by Joaquin sorolla trade, but finding that his nephew's one delight
was scribbling pictures in his lesson books, he
and traditions, is superseded by a foreigner, and wisely packed him off to the drawing classes at the
Spain, exhausted by prolonged misrule, accepts school for artisans, and subsequently to the Valencia
'the bath from the oil-painting
"the beach of Valencia" from the oil-painting by joaquin sorolla
244
without resistance the pert eclecticism of
Versailles. For close upon a century she is
content to ape the manners of her neighbours,
and then the realism which is the dominant
attribute of her painting as a whole asserts itself
afresh in Goya. He, however, is at the time its
only representative, albeit a great one. Later on
his influence reappears; but at his death his
countrymen, embroiled in civil wars and other
trouble, are too distracted to attend to art. As
soon as matters settle down, the noble though
extravagant impulse generated partly by the
French Revolution and partly by the War of
Spanish Independence, produces the painter of
history—Casado del Alisal, Rosales, Pradilla.
He, in his turn, surrenders to a very powerful
and vital " moment," the realism of this present
day, whose most gifted and triumphant leader is
Joaquin Sorolla.
The son of humble parents, and born at
Valencia in 1862, Sorolla was left an orphan in
early childhood and adopted by his uncle, Don
Jos£ Piqueres. Sefior Piqueres, a locksmith,
would doubtless have brought him up to his own
by Joaquin sorolla trade, but finding that his nephew's one delight
was scribbling pictures in his lesson books, he
and traditions, is superseded by a foreigner, and wisely packed him off to the drawing classes at the
Spain, exhausted by prolonged misrule, accepts school for artisans, and subsequently to the Valencia
'the bath from the oil-painting
"the beach of Valencia" from the oil-painting by joaquin sorolla
244