JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 - Madrid,... Lot n° 864

Oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm Signed lower right ang.: J. Sorolla y Bastida PROVENANCE: Property of the sitter, widow of Calixto Rodríguez and sister-in-law of Helena Sorolla, the painter's youngest daughter. Bequeathed to her nephew José María Lorente Sorolla, son of Helena Sorolla. By descent to the present owner. EXHIBITIONS: Paris personal exhibition, Georges Petit Galleries, cat. no. 26 as Portrait de Mme. Rodriguez, 1906. BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. de Pantorba, La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla, Madrid 1970, p. 204, nº1955 (catalogued). This work is accompanied by an original certificate from Blanca Pons-Sorolla issued in Madrid, July 24, 2022 with inventory number BPS2003. "I, painter of portraits!!!, do not get out of my astonishment". Letter from Sorolla to his wife Clotilde, 1913 María Lorente de Rodríguez was the second wife of Calixto Rodríguez, a forestry engineer and important businessman in our country at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Being an influential personage and in Sorolla's time, to be portrayed by our painter was a symbol of prestige and for this reason he asked her for several portraits of him and his two wives. Sorolla would say of Calixto in an interview conducted in 1913 by Francisco Martín: "And since we are in a kind of chapter of thanks, we will cite here the names of those people to whom I owe gratitude because they reached out to me and helped me in the hours of struggle...Calixto Rodriguez constantly protected me and bought many of my works". In addition to the professional relationship, in 1902, when Calixto received Sorolla in his house, Calixto's nephew Victoriano Lorente met Sorolla's youngest daughter Helena for the first time, and 20 years later the two families married. The year in which Sorolla painted this portrait, 1905, was very productive for the painter, we know that he will make thirty portraits including family and we highlight: Rafael Errázuriz's family, the portrait of Etanislao Granzow, his wife and son, the Portrait of Calixto Rodríguez, Countess of Albox, María and her grandmother, Manuel Bartolomé Cosío, María Lorente de Rodríguez, among others. Our portrait, sketchy, painted au naturel is resolved with great freedom of stroke, with thick brushstrokes he draws the dress in a masterful way. In profile, but looking at the viewer smiling, Sorolla thus achieved a sense of instantaneity so characteristic in the work of the Valencian. We highlight the white color of the dress, so much to Sorolla's taste, which stands out against the darker background and the splurge of light in the reflections of the dress and in Maria's face that fill the composition with life.