F. BANCAJA. Pl. Gentlemen, 23
Surely Joaquín Sorolla did not clear the table after eating, Most likely, he sat smoking a cigar while Clotilde, his wife, and his daughters collected the dirty dishes. I wasn't a feminist, like no man was in his time and it would be a mistake to judge him (to him or his work) with today's eyes. But the exhibition hosted by Bancaja, Sorolla. plural feminine, He wants to at least present him as a sensitive man who is respectful of women., whom he always portrayed with a patina of dignity. Stimulated by the intelligence and good sense of his own wife, the commissioners say. bold statement. Anyway... In any case, every excuse is good, especially in Valencia, to revisit the work of our most distinguished artist, and in this case The excuse is to analyze the image he drew of the women of the time, favorable although riddled with stereotypes: home angels, fallen women, simple and hardworking women of the town, elegant bourgeois and “modern”.
Like so many others, Sorolla resorted to classical antiquity or the imagery of the East to clothe his nudes with dignity., and used the well-worn theme of the painter and the model to create openly sensual images. Odalisques, bacchantes and models parade in the first part of the exhibition, and then give way to peasants, housewives, prostitutes, fisherwomen, elegant ladies of the aristocracy, artists and the women in their family, in everyday scenes and close and affectionate portraits. Paints peasant women as working women, clean and devout in simple paintings, without too many pretensions, and the prostitutes in the oil painting White slave traffic with compassion, in a short period in which he practiced social realism. Always friendly. The fisherwomen appear as tough women made to work on the coast, where Sorolla made his greatest discoveries in the study of light and the use of color, those who would bring him world fame. The women in the exhibition capture the evolution of the Sorollesque style, the wonderful watercolor of The Santera (1890) reflects the artist's experimentation with the influences he had received during his stays in Europe, in the traditional painting Valencian family (1894) Seek naturalism and dominate the light like no one else, the grape harvester of Jerez (1914) It is made of quick impressionistic brushstrokes that seek to capture the precise moment, and the gouache Cristinita dressed in white (1919) It is an example of where Sorolla's art would have gone from now on.. The sample approach is doubtful, but Sorolla's art is unquestionable. AU
