Madrid's Prado to stage Sorolla exhibition
AFP
MADRID - Madrid's Prado Museum opens a retrospective next week of impressionist-inspired artist Joaquin Sorolla, 102 works that include his most famous paintings of children on beaches under bright sunlight.
The main attraction of the show, which runs from May 26 to September 6, is a collection of 14 works produced by the Spanish artist especially for the Hispanic Society of New York.
The bright paintings of children on the beach with which Sorolla, who lived from 1863 to 1923, is best known represent only one of the various styles that he cultivated and that can be seen in the exhibition.
He started out producing works of social realism before turning to local customs and then to portraits and nudes, strongly influenced by 17th century Spanish master Diego Velazquez, and finally to landscapes in the last years of his life.
The works in the exhibition reflect a "Spain that is optimistic and joyful" in the face of a pessimistic generation, said the show's curator, Jose Luis Diez.
He said Sorolla was influenced by impressionism but never belonged to any particular school.
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