The Last Heroes

Sorolla: A Vision of Spain takes us through Joaquín Sorolla’s unique journey, from his early career in Spain to the completion of his life’s most prominent work for the Hispanic Society in New York. Art enthusiasts can discover what made the artist’s use of light so singular, why he was so keen on painting in the outdoors and how he transformed unexpected sources of inspiration into notorious canvases.

While the beaches of his hometown of Valencia inspired much of his work, Sorolla was a prolific artist who went beyond a single style of painting and a single source of inspiration. He captured moments with fast brushstrokes and painted quickly to capture the fleeting vibrations of light and moving waters of the sea, making him the “Spanish master of light” he was known to be in his lifetime.

Introduced by the words of the painter’s great-granddaughter, this book presents more than a hundred artworks and narrates all there is to know to get a grasp of the Spanish master’s extensive oeuvre, from his internationally acclaimed canvases to his more fortuitous pieces worth rediscovering. They are accompanied by photographs from José Ortiz-Echagüe, as well as numerous behind-the-scenes images of the painter at work. Both the author and Blanca Pons-Sorolla have taken part in the selection of artworks featured in the book.