SOROLLA MUSEUM

Hello, we are María and Lucía, 2nd ESO students and we are going to tell you about our visit to the Sorolla museum.

Starting with what we have worked on in class, at the beginning of the course we learned to draw the proportions of the human figure, both male and female. The final project of that term was to associate everything previously learned to recreate one of the most famous works of painters who have the human figure as their main idea.

Last week, we went on an excursion to the museum of Sorolla, one of the most renowned Spanish painters in history. Everything we learned last term was reflected in that visit. The Sorolla museum is not just a museum, but before being inaugurated as a museum in 1932, it was the home of Joaquín Sorolla and his family. On this visit, we were able to see how its gardens were small recreations of more well-known gardens, such as the Alhambra. Joaquín Sorolla was fascinated by painting outdoors and, although he did not paint exactly what the landscape was like, he did try to make its colors similar. To do this, what he did was catch butterflies of the same colors that he found in the landscape, and he took them home so that he could paint his picture in the same colors. Apart from this, we entered the house and saw the pictures that were painted by Sorolla. Those paintings had different colors, textures, they were more realistic, with less detail… We learned that Joaquín enjoyed more painting less elaborate paintings without producing too much in creating specific elements. However, his paintings reflected how the people depicted in them were, implying their personality and emotions. Our guide explained to us that Joaquín Sorolla’s style was Sorollista since he perfected his art to higher levels. Joaquín liked to paint his family, since he painted his children from their childhood to their adulthood. He also painted his wife and their dog, Canelo. All of her children dedicated themselves to the arts, but only the eldest daughter, María, dedicated herself professionally to painting. Almost all of these portraits were found in the living room of the house, and the ground floor was for winter since it was heated, and the upper floor was for summer since it was cooler.

The Sorolla museum was divided into two parts. Entering through the main door, there was the area where customers passed and the other area was the family area. In the family area, customers could not pass. Finally, Sorolla painted many paintings. And since he was almost always painting in his studio, he had a ottoman so he could rest for short periods.

In conclusion, thanks to the excursion we took last week to the Sorolla museum, we were able to learn even more about the painter, see the paintings on display, and all this connected to everything we saw in the first term, when we saw the human figure.

María and Lucia, 2nd ESO students