And They Still Say Fish is Expensive!

In the cramped hold of a fishing boat, two old fishermen tend a young man hurt at sea. Sorolla gave the scene a title like a reproach, and it won him a first class medal in 1895.

The story behind the painting

Joaquín Sorolla painted this large oil on canvas, about 151 by 204 cm, in 1894, early in his career, when his work belonged to social realism. The title comes from Flor de Mayo, a novel by his close friend, the writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, set on the beaches of the Cabañal district of Valencia. At the end of the book a fisherman named Pascualet dies at sea, and his aunt, lamenting over his body, closes the novel with a cry that gave Sorolla his title.

What to look for

Two fishermen bend over a third who has had an accident at sea. The injured man is bare chested, and around his neck hangs a medal, probably of the Virgin of Carmen, protector of sailors. Around them are the objects and tools of a boat's interior: a lamp, a barrel of fresh water, ropes and fish. Nothing distracts from the bodies and their care. The critic Emiliano M. Aguilera described two old fishermen helping a young colleague who is half suffocated, a very moving scene treated with great realism.

Meaning and intent

Aguilera called it one of the many scenes that proletarian pain can offer, and said the artist felt it deeply and named the picture with a reproach. The title throws the price of fish back at those who complain about it, reminding them what the catch can cost the men who bring it in. The small medal of the Virgin at the young man's throat adds a quiet note of faith and fear, the hope of protection in a trade where the sea can take a life.

Legacy

The painting brought Sorolla the First Class Medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1895 in Spain, and the Spanish state acquired it that same year. It now hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The bond with Blasco Ibáñez has drawn scholars too: an essay by Paco Carsí asks whether the two men influenced each other or simply coincided, a question that this picture, born from the last line of a novel, makes easy to understand.