Joaquin Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863 – 1923) was a Spanish painter, born in Valencia, who excelled in the painting of landscapes, and large works of social and historical themes. Sorolla is one of my all time favorite artists. His most typical works are of people in the landscape under the sunlight of his native land. Sorolla's paintings have both very strong poetry, near music, and far music. His use of color to create an illusion is particularly worth studying. He is one of the few painters who understood hue changes on a form. From the far music point of view, he was very strong in composition, particularly in space division, the use of primary and secondary focal areas, and his use of eye movement. One of the most wonderful things about Sorolla's paintings is the near music. I have studied many of his large works close up, and found that he used a very large number of brushwork techniques, such as bravura, calligraphy, scumbling, and many more. In fact in one particular painting I studied closely in his studio in Madrid, I noted that he used just about every brushwork technique I describe in the Brushwork Building Block!