Dos grupos de figuras

1885

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.