Joaquín SorollaSpanish, 1863–1923Dos viejos
Can I see it?
Unknown
Where is “Dos viejos” now? Collection: Sorolla Museum, Madrid. Unknown.
Madrid, Spain
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Museum text in Spanish
Dibujo que puede estar realizado en Italia o París entre los años 1885 y 1889, mostrando una escena del interior de un café, con dos hombres de avanzada edad sentados de perfil. Visten sombrero y levita y mantienen una pose ligeramente encorvada. Ambos apoyan el brazo en el respaldo curvo de la silla. El de la izquierda descansa la mano sobre un bastón, y el de la derecha, con gafas, sostiene un cigarro apoyando su brazo derecho sobre la mesa, en la que descansa una botella. Tras ellos, a la izquierda, una mujer con moño y un hombre junto a lo que parece la barra del café. En primer plano a la derecha y cortadas por el margen del papel, una mesa y una silla de rejilla vacías acentúan la profundidad de la escena. Sorolla titula en el ángulo inferior izquierdo su dibujo: Dos viejos.
Sorolla Museum
Details
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Sorolla Museum
- Image: Sorolla Museum — In Copyright
In the life of Joaquín Sorolla
The whole life1885
A four-year grant to study in Rome
Having completed his military service, the twenty-two-year-old Sorolla received a grant from the Spanish Academy in Rome for four years of study in Italy. In Rome he was welcomed by the academy’s director, Francisco Pradilla, in whose example the young painter found stability.
1885
Paris: his first encounter with modern painting
A long stay in Paris gave him his first exposure to modern painting; he was especially struck by exhibitions of Jules Bastien-Lepage and Adolph von Menzel. Back in Rome he studied with José Benlliure, Emilio Sala and José Villegas Cordero.
1888
Returns to Valencia to marry Clotilde
Sorolla returned to Valencia to marry Clotilde García del Castillo; by 1895 they had three children — María, Joaquín and Elena.
1890
Moves to Madrid: large canvases for the salons
The family moved to Madrid. For the next decade Sorolla concentrated on large canvases of orientalist, mythological, historical and social subjects for salons and international exhibitions in Madrid, Paris, Venice, Munich, Berlin and Chicago.
1897
“A Research”: the Prize of Honour in Madrid
Two paintings linking art and science, “Portrait of Dr. Simarro at the Microscope” and “A Research”, won Sorolla the Prize of Honour at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. He showed his friend Simarro in the laboratory, catching the contrast between the reddish-yellow light of a gas burner and the weak mauvish light from the window.
1900
Grand Prix at the Paris Universal Exposition
“Sad Inheritance”, a huge canvas of crippled children bathing in the sea at Valencia under a monk’s supervision, brought Sorolla his greatest official recognition, the Grand Prix and a medal of honour, and his exhibit as a whole earned him nomination as a Knight of the Legion of Honour. After this picture he never returned to so overtly social a theme.
