The Sorolla Museum incorporates into its collection three unpublished works by a young Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), a few days after the start of the Sorolla Year 2023 program, the commemoration of the first centenary of death of the painter
It is a set of three high quality paintings and perfect state of preservation, entitled ‘At the inn’, ‘The slave and the dove. Nude’ and ‘The Offeror’. Executed all three in 1883when Sorolla had only 20 years old, they are an excellent example of the painting of his first stage. The training period is quite unknown to the general public since most of these works are in private collections.
Joaquin Sorolla. ‘The offeror’. Detail
These acquisitions, for a total of 357.000 euros, have been carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, through the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts, following a favorable proposal from the Board of Qualification, Valuation and Export of Spanish Historical Heritage Assets. Purchased for state public collections through the modality of direct sales offerhave been deposited and assigned to the stable collection of the Sorolla Museum in recent months, along with other works also framed in Sorolla’s first stage such as ‘Niña cantora’ (1883) or the watercolor ‘Tocando la guitarra’ (1887).
At the gates of the Sorolla Year 2023, these acquisitions take on great relevance and respond to the current acquisitions policy of the Sorolla Museum, focused on covering existing gaps in history and themes in its stable collection, as is the case of the first-stage painting of the young man painter.
The year 1883 was especially significant for Sorolla when he began to obtain his first successes after the Regional Exhibition of Valencia. In fact, two of the works acquired, which form a couple, ‘The slave and the dove. Nude’ and ‘El oferente’, were exhibited in said sample as ‘Two studies of nude’.
Joaquin Sorolla. ‘At the inn’. Detail
The first has dimensions of 148 by 86.5 centimeters, and has been acquired for 160,000 euros through a direct sale offer in a private collection. And the second, measuring 149 by 99 centimeters, has been purchased for a total of 142,000 euros through the same route. Signed and signed, both canvases are outstanding examples of the academic training exercises that Sorolla already fully dominated. Through its theme of pompeian inspirationdemonstrate Sorolla’s mastery of classical knowledge, while anticipating the enormous ease of the ‘master of light’ with white.
Likewise, ‘En la posada’ (1883) is an oil on panel measuring 27.4 by 17 centimeters, purchased for 50,000 euros. Signed and dedicated, it is one of the few examples of scenes inspired by the painting of the mansion of Mariano Fortuny and Sorolla’s teacher, Francisco Domingo Marquis. Set in a baroque interior, it stands out for its precise, colorful and brilliant technique that allowed the young painter to practice a new approach to nature and to the capture of light from which he would forge his artistic career.
The works have been previously examined by experts and are included in the catalog raisonné of the painter’s work that his great-granddaughter, Blanca Pons-Sorolla, is finalizing. The three works will be exhibited for the first time in the temporary exhibition that kicks off the centenary of Sorolla, entitled ‘Sorolla. Origins’, It will open next Monday.