Joaquín SorollaSpanish, 1863–1923Two Sisters, Valencia
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Two Sisters, Valencia” now? Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
A windblown girl looks out toward the viewer, shielding her eyes from the blinding sun with one hand while holding on to her younger sister with the other. Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was enchanted with the effects of light, absorbed and reflected here in the dramatic gradient of the blue water melding into wet sand. The broad and loose brushstrokes give the work a sketch-like appearance that suits the fleeting moment.
Read on
These techniques, along with his direct observation from nature, aligned Sorolla firmly with the Impressionists, with whom he exhibited in Paris. Working 30 years earlier, French Impressionist Pierre-August Renoir painted a similar theme in his Two Sisters (On the Terrace). In contrast to Renoir’s carefully posed models, Sorolla drew his inspiration from the spontaneity of real life: his sisters appear caught in a moment of play, their positions and gestures active and awkward.
Sorolla’s candid depictions of intimate, familial relationships earned him international success, particularly among American audiences, who experienced his works for the first time at an exhibition at the Hispanic Society in New York in 1909. While on vacation with his family in Valencia, Spain, that summer, Sorolla began creating works for a second American presentation, a process he believed would take five years but instead took only 18 months. Two Sisters was one of 30 works he produced during that fertile period along the Spanish coast and was among the 188 pieces featured in the artist’s second US exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1911.
The four-week-long show was a massive success, with around 40 of the works selling by the exhibition’s close, including Two Sisters, Valencia . Mrs. Elizabeth H. North purchased the painting and immediately donated it to the Art Institute in memory of her husband, William Stanley North.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 1911.28
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
In the life of Joaquín Sorolla
The whole life1907
Post: vocal of the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones científicas
1908
Meets Archer Huntington
Large exhibitions in Germany and London met with more restraint than the Paris show, but in England Sorolla met Archer Milton Huntington, who made him a member of the Hispanic Society of America in New York and invited him to exhibit there.
1909
New York show: 195 of 356 paintings sold
The exhibition at the Hispanic Society of America comprised 356 paintings, 195 of which were sold. Sorolla spent five months in America and painted more than twenty portraits.
1911
Contract with Huntington for a series on Spain
In Paris Sorolla signed a contract with the American magnate and patron Archer Huntington for a series of paintings on life in Spain. The major commission of his career, it dominated his last years.
early 1911
Second US visit: St. Louis and Chicago
Sorolla visited the United States a second time and showed 152 new paintings at the Saint Louis Art Museum and, a few weeks later, 161 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
1911–1919
Through the provinces of Spain to paint from life
Huntington had envisioned a history of Spain; Sorolla preferred a “Vision of Spain” and finally images of the regions of the peninsula, “The Provinces of Spain”. He painted all but one of the huge canvases en plein air, travelling to Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Elche, Seville, Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia, Guipúzcoa, Castile, León and Ayamonte and posing models in local costume.
