VIII. Towards 1915: the return to his own artistic order
Sorolla’s quest for creative freedom came
to a climax in his mature work, in which
he refused to be constrained by
expressive limitations of any kind. Thus,
while remaining faithful to the realistic
definition of his art, during this stage
he produced his most daring works,
paintings in which the material execution
of the piece took precedence over all
other aspects. La siesta is the
clearest example of his desire to attain
artistic independence. The portrait of
Louis Comfort Tiffany also
belongs to this experimental line. In
this work, Sorolla manipulated a
background landscape of motley-hued fl
owers to recreate the aesthetic of the
stained glass windows responsible for
making Tiffany internationally famous,
attempting in this way to capture the
essence of the sitter’s own art and
personality.
In the final years of his life, however,
Sorolla abandoned the experimental line
he had pursued in works such as La siesta
and, around 1915, he returned to his own
artistic order. That year, during his
summer painting expedition, his art
adopted a forceful, monumental tone. This
tone, already visible in Beached
Boats, whose sails—as smooth as
polished stone—are so swollen with wind
that they are cut off by the edge of the
canvas, culminates in the sensual, pagan
presence of The Pink Robe, where
the sculptural physique of a female fi
gure is emphatically humanized by means
of a realistic and completely modern
treatment of light.
-
Joaquín Sorolla, The Pink Robe, Oil on canvas, 208 x 126.5 cm. 1916. Madrid, Museo Sorolla
