Sorolla, One Hundred Years of Modernity
Venue: Royal Collections Gallery, Madrid
Dates: 17 October 2024–20 April 2025
Light Art Exhibitions and the Spanish heritage agency Patrimonio Nacional, in partnership with the Museo Sorolla and Fundación Museo Sorolla, organised Sorolla, One Hundred Years of Modernity, which received more than 140,000 visitors. The exhibition was curated by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the painter’s great-granddaughter, Consuelo Luca de Tena, former director of the Museo Sorolla, and Enrique Varela Agüí, director of the Museo Sorolla.
The exhibition featured seventy-seven works from the principal institutions dedicated to preserving the painter’s legacy. Many were supplied by the Museo Sorolla and its foundation, taking advantage of the museum’s temporary closure for renovations. Other Spanish museums, such as the Museo del Prado and Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, also contributed pieces. Additionally, the show featured works loaned by prestigious international institutions like the Musée d’Orsay and the Hispanic Society of America, as well as other public and private collections in Spain, the United States and Mexico.
One of the pieces on display is a recent recovery: Paris Boulevard (1890), Sorolla’s only large-format portrayal of “modern life” on the streets of the French capital, had been considered missing ever since it was first exhibited in 1890.
The exhibition also included his depiction of The Giralda, Seville (1908), on public display for the very first time, and works never shown before in Spain, such as:
Portrait of the Mexican Soprano Esperanza Iris (1920), Arch and Bridge of Santa María, Burgos (1910), Children Bathing or Afternoon Sun, València (1909) and Boats at Jávea (1905). For three of the works—Sierra Nevada from the Cemetery, Granada (1909), Before the Bath, València (1909), and Lucrecia Arana (1920)—this was their first public appearance in Madrid.
The show capped off the Sorolla Centenary celebrations, which lasted from 2022 to 2024, with a fascinating survey of modernity in the Valencian painter’s work. The exhibition was divided into five sections:
- Path to Success
- The Ever-Changing Sea
- Feeling the Portrait
- Vision of Spain
- From Landscape to Garden
The show had such a large turnout that it was extended until 20 April 2025.