VII. Around 1909: the Malvarrosa beach
During the summer of 1909, Sorolla moved
to La Malvarrosa beach, where he felt a
completely happy man. His triumph in
Europe had been followed by further
success in the United States, and the
critical acclaim his work received was
only surpassed by its warm reception on
the market, which continued to demand
more and more paintings by the
artist.
This period of fulfi lment and
self-assurance saw the artist create a
series of interesting paintings, all set
on the water’s edge. They are euphoric,
extraordinarily luminous works that
include some of the artist’s most
representative pieces. In them, the
Mediterranean classicism that hovers over
all of Sorolla’s oeuvre achieves its
fullest expression, an effect that was
reinforced by the frames the artist chose
for many of them, inspired by Greek
architecture. In fact, an almost musical
harmony, like that of a calm classical
procession, informs Strolling along the
Seashore, a work that validates the
artist’s fame, in which the material
treatment is given special prominence.
Scenes such as The Horse’s Bath and Boys
on the Beach became not only evocations
of the Mediterranean’s Greco-Roman past,
but also icons of Sorolla’s work and the
expression of a joyful interpretation of
reality, in contrast to the
pessimism of the Generation of ’98.
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Joaquín Sorolla, The Horse’s Bath, Oil on canvas, 205 x 250 cm. 1909. Madrid, Museo Sorolla
