Tocando la guitarra en la taberna

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.