sotheby's to sell beach scene by spanish painter joaquín sorolla, to be offered at auction for...
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7/29/2019 Sotheby's To Sell Beach Scene By Spanish Painter Joaquín Sorolla, To Be Offered At Auction For The First Time
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London | Mitzi Mina | [email protected] | Matthew Floris | [email protected] |+44 (0)20 7293 6000
Spain | Andrew Montgomery | [email protected] | +34 667 410 586
SOROLLA’S VALENCIAN VISION:
A RETURN TO INNOCENCE
Major Beach Scene Appears at Auction for the
First Time at Sotheby’s in London
Niños en la playa, 1916
Estimate £1,800,000-2,500,000
Sotheby’s is delighted to offer Niños en la playa by Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla, in a sale of 19th
Century
European Paintings in London on 23 May 2013. Its appearance on the market follows the November 2012 sale of the
artist’s Pescadores valencianos, which achieved £3,737,250, at Sotheby’s, London, an auction record for Sorolla.
Niños en la playa, estimated at £1,800,000-2,500,000*, has been in the artist’s family since the late 50s. It appears
at auction for the first time and will spearhead a group of Spanish paintings in the May sale.
7/29/2019 Sotheby's To Sell Beach Scene By Spanish Painter Joaquín Sorolla, To Be Offered At Auction For The First Time
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Painted in 1916, the work is a beach scene at Valencia, in which Sorolla expresses to full effect his emotion at
returning to his native city, the intimacy of his vision and the consummate brio of his painterly technique.
Adrian Biddell, Head of the 19th
Century European Paintings Department, comments, ‘As well as being an exquisite
painting, with a wonderfully fresh contemporary feel to it, it also has a fascinating history. It was immediately
recognised as a masterpiece by influential Valencian dealer Justo Bou, who sold it very quickly to the distinguished
collector and Sorolla admirer María Bauzá de Rodriguéz. Then in the late 1950s, Sorolla’s grandson and leading
expert on the artist, Francisco Pons-Sorolla, identifies it as a crucial work in his oeuvre, and acquires it.’
1916 at El Cabañal was an exceptional summer for Sorolla; it was a welcome recess from working on the panels for
Visions of Spain, Alfred M. Huntington’s monumental commission destined for the Hispanic Society in New York.
Following his efforts in the spring on the huge Valencian panel, which proved to be a nostalgic foray into his past,
Sorolla would produce four major paintings or startling creativity, of which Niños en la playa is one.
Describing the present work, Blanca Pons Sorolla,
expert and great-granddaughter of the artist,
comments: ‘Niños en la playa is seen, understood and
recorded in paint as a whole; there are no partial
sketches that undermine the scene in its entirety. The
colour, the light, the proportion of the figures, the
depth, and the breeze of the wind affect in equal
measure the entire work. It is extraordinary that Sorolla
can capture on canvas something as difficult as the
spontaneity of the moment which unfolds before him and imbue it with the emotional charge he feels.’
Aurora Zubillaga, Managing Director of Sotheby’s Spain comments: ‘Given the resounding success of the sale of
Sorolla’s Pescadores valencianos last November, it is an honour to offer Niños en la playa, a masterpiece by the
Valencian artist. In the November sale we witnessed a breadth and depth of bidding for works by Sorolla, with
interest from established buyers and newcomers from Europe and the Americas.’
Niños en la playa has remained in the artist’s family ever since it was purchased
six decades ago and has been included in many of most important exhibitions
on Sorolla’s work in Bordeaux, Madrid, Valencia, New York, St Louis and
Lausanne. In 1963, Niños en la playa was selected to illustrate a special edition
of stamps to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth (right).
The work will be exhibited in Spain in April and in New York and London in May
prior to the sale.
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* Estimates do not include buyer’s premium and prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST NOTES TO EDITORS
Since June 2000, the European Paintings department in Sotheby’s London has held a sale specifically dedicated to Spanish
Paintings. Since then, Sotheby’s has sold more than 60 works by Sorolla at auction, totalling more than $60 million , of these,roughly 50% sold above their pre-sale high estimate
Sotheby’s holds the record for the artist at auction:
In dollars, $6.3m achieved in 2003 for La hora del baño (The bathing hour)
In sterling, £3.7m achieved in 2012 for Pescadores valencianos (Valencian Fishermen)
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