His heart crashed like a wave in the dazzling Mediterranean Sea. The sun was warm, the wind was gentle, and the sound of the waves was so peaceful. But his eyes are filled with sorrow and pity. Because one scene caught his eye.
Invisible boys under the age of 10 were lined up on the beach naked. There were children swimming in the sea unable to control their overflowing energy, and boys looking at them with envy. I was only envious because I was a disabled person with crutches.
A monk guides each boy into the sea. It was bathing in the sea for healing. Children with disabilities feel the ripples of the waves, even for a moment. It was hard work, but even in the scorching sun, the monk did not show any difficulty. Beads of sweat flowed like rain through the monk’s black clothes. The man watching from afar felt compassion, pity, and sublimity at the same time.
“May I draw a picture of you?”
She couldn’t hide her manly desire to capture them on her own canvas. It was because of the strong impression given by this beach, a place of play, of children who want to improve their lives and a helper who helps them. The monk smiled and said, “I see.”
The man who was a painter quickly took out a brush. And she completes the picture. The title is ‘Sad Inheritance’ ( Sad Inheritance ). I meant children who inherited polio from a parent with syphilis. The world praised the sad fate of the children in contrast to the splendid Mediterranean sea.
The painter emerges as Spain’s leading artist. His name is Joaquin Soro. He is credited with pioneering Spanish Impressionism. August 10 this year marks the 100th anniversary of his passing.
Joaquin Soro, who grew up as an orphanJoaquin Sorolla was born in Valencia, Spain in February 1863. It was a beautiful city where the sunny weather always embraced humans. However, the weather inside was always gloomy. His parents died in a cholera epidemic when he was young. He was orphaned at the age of only two.
Soroya and his sister Concha are left in the care of his maternal uncle. The locksmith uncle and his wife took good care of them, but they could not completely fill the parental void.
Soroya digested his grief through painting. His maternal uncle tried to teach him locksmithing, but in vain. Sorolla’s eyes were always on the canvas. His maternal uncle and his wife finally gave their support to him who showed his talent. He visited the Prado Museum in Madrid, the capital, and studied famous paintings.He was a very talented painter. By the time he turned 22, he had the opportunity to study abroad in Rome and Paris, Italy. Because he won second prize at an exhibition in Madrid. It was ‘Artillery defending Monteleon Park’ (1884). It is a painting depicting the Spanish army resisting the invader Napoleon. The paintings of Soroya, who took his first steps as a painter, show a somewhat seriousness. It could have been that the sadness of his family history had melted into the painting.
Studying in Rome made him a more mature painter. It was because he could directly face the work of a Renaissance painter. The details have become more sophisticated, and the strokes of the brushes have become more unstoppable. His drawing skills are unmatched.
Soroya returns to Valencia in search of love“I want to go back. To Valencia, where she is.”
After about four years of study, he prepares to return to Spain. He was back ahead of schedule. When he was 17, it was because he missed the first woman he met and fell in love with. She met Clotilde Garcia while working as her assistant in a photo studio. He couldn’t stand the ‘living life alone’ any longer.The name ‘family’ has always been an object of envy to Soroya. Was it because the absence of parents gave birth to another desire? He often dreamed of meeting someone he loved, giving birth to beautiful children, and living happily. In 1888 he succeeded in marrying his beloved woman Clotilde. They also gave birth to three lovely children.
Transferring a sharp gaze toward society to the canvasAfter marriage, he went on to build a decent career. It’s because painting skills are also skills, and the gaze that looks at the world has always been filled with compassion. The work called ‘The White Slave’ ( Trata de blanca ) is representative.It is a picture of a young woman with a hood on her head asleep in a narrow train compartment. An older woman dressed in black is a pimp. When the ladies wake up, they are doomed to deal with men for money in the back alleys of the city. Sorolla sharply portrayed the dark side of Spanish society. Of course, I didn’t forget my compassion for the girls who were about to be sold.The work that made Sorolla a representative painter in Spain was the aforementioned ‘Sad Legacy’ (1899). It was a picture of polio boys receiving sea bath treatment at the beach. He wrote down exactly what he felt when he found the children on the beach.
He may have projected his unfortunate past in the appearance of children. The situations of children who lost their parents at a very young age were similar to those of children who were abandoned by their parents because of their disabilities. In the will of children who want to overcome their disabilities by bathing in the sea, they must have found themselves trying to soothe their sadness with their childhood drawings.
People at the time also felt the nostalgia contained in the painting. This is the background of winning the grand prize at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1900. The following year, he was awarded the Medal of Honor at the National Art Exhibition in Madrid .
Joaquin Soroya, whose family inspired his artThey say that art transcends moral boundaries. This is because there are many artists who meet various women, get bored easily, and express their emotions through aesthetic sense.
However, he did not live a dissolute life even though he had a great sense of art. He expressed undying love for his wife and deep affection for his three children. In many of his works, his family served as models.
Take a look at his painting ‘Mother’ (Madre). Her mother gazes lovingly at her newborn baby on a white bed. The child sleeps soundly, and the mother caresses her child with warm eyes. It is a work in which his wife, Clotilde, and her third daughter, Elena, are models. Can you feel how much he loved his family?
This is the background that Elena, who received her father’s infinite love, chose her path as a painter. Many of the works considered masterpieces were modeled after his family. ‘Beach walk’ and ‘Bath, Harvea’ are also representative.
Master of Spanish Luminism“A painter approaching the light of Valencia”
Within the fence of his family, he rises to the position of a master. After attending the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, he began to embody the painting style of Post-Impressionism. He was a Spanish-style master of ‘external light painting’, which captures natural light as it is on the canvas. The Spanish Mediterranean sun shone again on his canvases. Spanish luminism begins to blossom.His representative work ‘Children of the Beach’ was born that way. The children playing in the coastal waters of Valencia evoke the feeling that they are about to jump out of the picture even now. How vivid is the light of the sun beating down on the children. He became a world master with this work. It was enough to draw a portrait of William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States.
Live in a painting, die in a paintingEvery artist has a ‘masterpiece’ that devours them. Soroya had a moment like that too. In 1911, the Hispanic Society of America commissioned his work. It was a painting for immigrants who would miss their native Spain. It was ‘Spanish Vision’. not limited to any one region. A difficult vocation to draw landscapes of various regions. Sorolla gladly accepted.Sorolla was not a heavy-hipped painter. He traveled all over the place, drawing pictures. He was not interested in the art of high-ranking magnates and aristocrats. The common people sweating in the market and at the fish market were captured on canvas. The targets were men and women wearing traditional costumes and enjoying each other’s customs. It is truly a human painting.Great works sometimes destroy the artist. So is this case. After painting the work, which he completed eight years after receiving his first commission, Soroya was suffering. In the meantime, he occasionally found happiness by painting pictures of his family. For him, family is the source of life and the origin of happiness.
In 1920, the year after completing the ‘Spanish Vision’. He had suffered a stroke. Three years later he took his last breath. Of course, the family he longed for was by his side.
Soro, who shone as much as the dazzling sunThe body perishes, but the name remains forever. His family worked hard to ensure that his name was remembered by Spaniards throughout his life. Sorolla’s house and works were donated to the Spanish government. 1932 was the beginning of the Sorolla Museum토토사이트. It is smaller in scale than the Prado Museum, but there are many works that stand out with Sorolla’s cool colors.August 10 this year marks exactly 100 years since the death of Joaquin Sorolla. Exhibitions honoring him are being held all over Spain. It is difficult to go there in person, but I found his sculptures in Yunseul of the blue sea of Korea.It is a hot summer that reminds us of his skill in capturing the beautiful sunlight of the Mediterranean. I also think of his love for his family and compassion for humans, which were as beautiful as his paintings. Because they are so scarce these days.
<Summary of four lines>
ㅇJoaquín Sorolla raised his reputation as a Spanish-style impressionist painter
ㅇThere was compassion for the weak in his work. The subjects were children suffering from syphilis and prostitutes.
ㅇ Having lost his parents at the age of two, he expressed his love for his family through painting.
ㅇ It was different from other painters who used hard work and self-indulgence as the driving force of their art.
<References>
ㅇJoaquin Soroya, On the Sea, Beach, HB Press, 2020.
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