Sargent & Sorolla

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) studied painting from the age of 15 in his native Valencia, then in Madrid and eventually Rome. On his return to Spain, he became the major portraitist of his time, and worked with subjects including King Alphonso and Queen Victoria Eugenie. Like John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), whose career was unfolding on American shores, Sorolla remained firmly outside of the Impressionist vanguard and was all but indifferent to other popular artistic movements of the day, but nevertheless achieved international renown in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Both artists focused on society portraits but also undertook independent work and commissions for cultural institutions. They encountered one another occasionally, and held one another in very special regard. Sargent & Sorolla highlights the affinities between not just their personal and professional lives but their work itself: the expressive use of color and light, the development of a Modernist sensibility from Naturalist techniques, and the tremendous renown and commercial success each man reached independently. An essential exploration of how the careers of the two great artists ran parallel to each other, intersected, and also diverged.