Clayton’s Art Appreciation: Joaquin Sorolla

sorolla wharf (2) sorolla dancing (2)

Museum visits!

Since both Clayton and I really liked the Joaquin Sorolla painting which we saw in November at Musee d’Orsay, we decided to go to The Hispanic Society at 155th and Broadway in New York City.  Housed in their museum are not just a number of Sorollas on the second floor, but a whole room on the ground floor for which Sorolla was commissioned to paint 14 visions of Spain. The twelve to fourteen foot high murals range from a painting of a wharf scene to the rituals before a bullfight, to dances, harvests, herding cattle  and more. They are spectacular and display variations in Sorolla’s painting styles and give a clear understanding of why he was called the  Spanish “Painter of Light.”