ART & ABOUT: Joaquin Sorolla Exhibition Breaks Ten Year Attendance Record

MADRID.- The Museo del Prado has broken a ten year old attendance record with its Sorolla Exhibition. More than 450,000 persons visited the exhibition which closed on September 13, 2009 and was visited by more persons than other exhibitions for Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, El Greco, Zurbarán and Goya.

          JOAQUIN SOROLLA y BASTIDA studied painting from the age of fifteen in his native Valencia, Spain. By the time he was eighteen, he had traveled to Madrid, where he copied Master paintings in the Museo del Prado. Four years later, after winning a grant, the young artist began studying painting in Rome and worked on perfecting his signature style and ability to render luminous light effects.
          Upon Sorolla's return to Madrid, his portraits, landscapes and monumental historical and social pieces already gaining recognition internationally, he exhibited at the 1901 Exposition Univeselle in Paris and was commissioned by the Hispanic Society of America to paint decorative scenes for its NYC library. 
          Sorolla's widow left a large collection of his paintings to the people of Spain. They are now housed at the Museo Sorolla, in the artist's home in Madrid. Other prominent colletions include The J Paul Getty Museum's ten Impressionist beach scenes (Los Angeles) and the Hispanic Society of America's entire room devoted to the Spanish Master's work. The latter, located in Harlem, NYC, is currently under renovation and expected to reopen in October, 2009.