Joaquin Sorolla

Essay:

Painted in 1904 when Sorolla spent his summer in Asturias in northern Spain. The reference to Monet's haystack paintings cannot be underestimated. We have already seen how important French painting was to Sorolla and he had already travelled to Paris that year where he probably contemplated Monet's series which he had painted from 1888-9 and 1890-91.

Sorolla had first visited the region of Asturias in 1903, accopmanied by his family. They stayed in the house of the painter Tomás García Sampedro in La Pumariega, which was halfway between Muros and San Esteban. He toured the region, painting the coast and some of agricultural life inland.

He returned in 1904 to La Pumariega and spent the first half of the summer painting feverishly, nearly always in the open air. (He painted nearly 250 canvases that year). We know of more than 50 works from his Asturian sojourn.

This work is to be included in Blanca Pons-Sorolla, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida catalogue raisonné, with reference Nº BPS 1471.

Provenance:

Calixto Rodriguez;
Maria Lorente Rodriguez;
Victor Lorente Sorolla;
Private Collection, Valencia