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The Prado Museum is paying tribute to the Spanish painter,  Joaquín Sorolla, with an exhibition that brings together a selection of the artist’s portraits held by the museum in Room 60 of the Villanueva Building, devoted to the presentation of 19th Century Collections. From 21 December to 18 June, works that are part of the Permanent Collection can be seen in Room 60A, adjacent to the previous one, and Room 62A brings together the portraits by 19th century artists, including four by Sorolla.  

This exhibition offers a complete vision of Sorolla's evolution as a portraitist, which would give him international recognition in the first decade of the 20th century. The dedication to portraiture stands out in the work of Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) in terms of the number of portraits he painted and their high quality. His work as a young man with the photographer, Antonio García, gave him the ability to capture his sitters rapidly from life, an aspect already evident in paintings from his formative years.  

Of the 23 paintings by the artist held at the Prado Museum, 18 are portraits, including two acquired in 2022: Martín Rico (Room 62A) and Manuel Bartolomé Cossío, which are now presented at the Museum.

In Room 60A at the Museum, the portrait of Manuel Bartolomé Cossío, member of the first Board of Trustees of the Prado Museum and author of the first great monograph about El Greco, is on display after its recent restoration.  Next to it is the portrait of Francisco Giner de los Ríos, dedicated to Cossío, who succeeded him as director of the Institution. Both portraits left Spain after the Civil War and have now been recovered for the benefit of Spain's historical and artistic heritage.

Sorolla’s contribution to the genre frequently reveals the inspiration of the Old Masters, notably Velázquez, which can be seen in the greys and blacks used in paintings like The Painter, Aureliano de Beruete and María Teresa Moret, possibly the artist’s two finest portraits, as well as in the spatial ambiguity of the former.  

Image Credits:

• Manuel Bartolomé Cossío Joaquín Sorolla, 1908. Madrid, Prado National Museum
• María Figueroa dressed as a Maid of Honour. Joaquín Sorolla, 1901. Oil on Canvas. Madrid, Prado National Museum, Room 60
• Rafael Altamira y Crevea. Joaquín Sorolla,1886. Oil on Canvas. Madrid, Prado National Museum, Room 60
• María de los Ángeles Beruete y Moret, Countess widow of Muguiro. Joaquín Sorolla,1904. Oil on Canvas. Madrid, Prado National Museum, Room 60