Joaquín Sorolla – Light in Motion
Glyptotek, Copenhagen
8 November 2023 – 3 March 2024
Clotilde bajo el toldo, Biarritz (Clotilde beneath the awning, Biarritz), 1906
© Madrid, Museo Sorolla [Inv. 00774]
La alberca, Alcázar de Sevilla (The reservoir, Alcázar, Seville), 1910
© Madrid, Museo Sorolla [Inv. 00854]
Clotilde en el jardín (Clotilde in the garden), 1919-1920
© Madrid, Museo Sorolla [Inv. 01270]
Joaquín Sorolla – Light in Motion is the first-ever solo exhibition in the Nordic region devoted to the work of the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla. Featuring one of Spain’s most important painters, it marks both the 100th anniversary of the artist’s death and the state visit of the Spanish royal family to Denmark.
In November, for the first time in 42 years, the Spanish royal family pays a state visit to Denmark. In the light of this visit, and the fact that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the painter Joaquín Sorolla, in collaboration with Museo Sorolla, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation is presenting an exhibition devoted to the artist.
Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) was one of Spain’s greatest artists. Although up there with the likes of painters such as Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and Pablo Picasso, internationally speaking his oeuvre is probably not as famous as that of those other Spanish masters.
Joaquín Sorolla was born in Valencia in 1863. He started studying art in 1876 at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Valencia. He then travelled to Madrid, Paris and several Italian cities before finally settling in Madrid in 1899. He regularly took part in international exhibitions in major cities such as Paris, Munich, Vienna, London and Chicago, receiving several awards and meeting international colleagues. In 1909, Joaquín Sorolla had a major exhibition in New York, and in 1911 he received a large-scale commission from Archer Milton Huntington, who requested a decorative mural consisting of 14 monumental paintings featuring motifs from the regions of Spain. Joaquín Sorolla died in Cercedilla, Madrid in 1923.
Sierra Nevada en invierno (Sierra Nevada in Winter), 1910
© Madrid, Museo Sorolla [Inv. 00867]
Rompeolas, San Sebastián (Breakwater, San Sebastián), 1917-1918
© Madrid, Museo Sorolla [Inv. 01246]
This is the first-ever solo exhibition in Denmark of the work of Joaquín Sorolla. The Museo Sorolla has loaned 17 of the artist’s distinctive works to the Glyptotek. Actually, the work of Joaquín Sorolla was exhibited at the Glyptotek on one previous occasion: a single work featured in Den Internationale Kunstudstilling (The International Art Exhibition) (1897), when the museum was inaugurated. Carl Jacobsen’s objective was to introduce major international art to the Nordic region and to show the outside world that Denmark was a potentially new artistic centre in Europe.
Joaquín Sorolla is famous as ‘the master of light’. His paintings are full of light in motion, as observed by the artist in various landscapes and natural phenomena, and from season to season. He is famous for his depictions of the sea and beach scenes, landscapes and portraits, all of which motifs are featured in this exhibition. Given his interest in light, Sorolla is often associated with Impressionism. However, on account of his attempt to render his environment as accurately as possibly, he can also be called a Naturalist.
In the context of Denmark, Joaquín Sorolla’s work has much in common with the work of the Skagen Painters: in particularly, that of Peder Severin Krøyer. Joaquín Sorolla and Krøyer were contemporaries, and Sorolla is often referred to colloquially as ‘the Spanish Krøyer’. This is not only due to their common interest in plein air painting, but also because they both created atmospheric, lucent paintings, capturing nature, people’s lives and scenes of everyday life: working fishermen, young women walking on the beach, shaded gardens and the constant changes of the sea.
The work of the two artists featured in many of the same exhibitions – for example, in the 1895 Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris – and it is very likely that they knew and saw each other’s works.
Joaquín Sorolla – Light in Motion features key works from the collection of the Museo Sorolla in Madrid. The exhibition was the initiative of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation in collaboration with the Museo Sorolla. The exhibition is curated by Enrique Juncosa.
Joaquín Sorolla’s paintings are presented in dialogue with five works by five Spanish contemporary artists from different generations. All the works relate to Joaquín Sorolla’s oeuvre. The five Spanish contemporary artists are: Soledad Sevilla, Miquel Barceló, Juan Uslé, Miki Leal and Belén Rodríguez.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Dantes Plads 7, Copenhagen 1556
