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Joaquín Sorolla · 1909

Two women in white walk along the beach at Valencia, veils and fabric flying in the sea wind. Sorolla painted his wife and eldest daughter almost life-size.

The story behind the painting

Despite its title here, this 1909 painting is known in Spanish as Paseo a orillas del mar, Walk on the Beach. 1909 was a peak in Sorolla's career. Invited by Archer M. Huntington, he travelled to New York with his wife and two older children for his first American exhibition at the Hispanic Society of America, which drew 169,000 visitors. Back in Valencia, encouraged by this success, he stayed until the end of September and painted what his granddaughter Blanca Pons-Sorolla calls some of his best beach scenes.

What to look for

The almost square canvas, 205 by 200 cm, is unusually monumental for a beach view. Sorolla's wife Clotilde and their daughter Maria, 19, walk at the Playa de El Cabanyal, leaning slightly toward the right. Maria turns her head toward us, holding a yellow straw hat with purple flowers and a turquoise bow, while a sheer panel of cloth blows behind her in arabesques. Clotilde, her face in the shadow of her hat, holds a white parasol and keeps a greenish veil from flying away. No horizon is visible; the sea rises like a curtain behind them.

Meaning and intent

The dominant colour is white, but like the French Impressionists Sorolla mixed it with blue, yellow, lilac and orange to build light and shadow. The low evening sun comes from the viewer's side, so long shadows stretch behind the women. The sand is laid in short strokes, the sea in long ones. This handling of light under the southern sun is typical of Valencian Luminism, of which Sorolla was the main figure. Maria's young face looks into the sun while her mother's stays hidden, a quiet contrast between generations.

Legacy

Sorolla had painted the sea since youth, first with fishermen and working people, then from 1900 with children bathing. In his 1904 La hora del bano a white cloth moving in the wind was already the main subject, anticipating this picture. According to José Luis Alcaide, the beach paintings of the summer of 1909 mark a climax in Sorolla's career. The painting belongs to the Museo Sorolla in Madrid. It is an oil on canvas.