Mother of invention …
This painting from 1895-1900 is the brilliant standout in Joaquín Sorolla’s career. It shows his wife and muse Clotilde and their newly born daughter Elena. The set-up is strange and striking: they are heads only, floating in a blissful sea of white bed linen, gentle sunlight and soft shadows.
In his nature …
Sorolla’s ambition was to “destroy all conventionality”, yet this is one of the few occasions when he did smash convention. While borrowing impressionist ideas, his vision was embedded in old-fashioned figurative painting. His youthful bodies slick with sea spray, blooming gardens and scenes of traditional Spanish life made him the popular hit of his day. A radical he was not.
Pale and interesting …
Light was the Spanish artist’s stock-in-trade and in Mother he lets rip, giving himself over to ebullient shades of white.
Family first…
A compulsive worker, he once produced 80 beach paintings in one summer. His favourite subject, though, was his family. Elena would become a regular model, painted from cradle to adulthood.
Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light, The National Gallery, WC1, to 7 July
