El balandrito

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.

1920

A stroke at the easel in his own garden

Sorolla suffered a stroke at his easel in his garden in Madrid while painting a portrait. He was paralysed for the last three years of his life and died on 10 August 1923 in Cercedilla.