How did Sorolla get to paint like Velázquez?
Let's see...which are his secrets?
Hello. I'm Antonio García Villarán and in this video I am going to tell you how Sorolla got to achieve that mastery within painting
The reason why everybody admires him
I mean, everybody...
I remember hearing in the Faculty of Fine Arts people saying pejoratively to someone "you paint like Sorolla"
But, I mean...
I think this happened at old times and I believe it was because of insecurity
Evidently, Sorolla achieved mastery
He got to achieve a great knowledge on color and brush stroke
I think he is inside the group of painters who have achieved a higher level
I am saying within painting
I was in Madrid not a long time ago and I was in The Museum Sorolla because I didn't go since around 15 years ago
And it impressed me again
I saw all of it, my head exploded and I thought to myself:
"Now I know the 7 reasons why Sorolla achieved what he achieved."
And, I am going to share them with you
1- Training
The first thing you have to know is that Sorolla stayed orphan when we was two years old.
This means he had a tragic childhood.
However, he and his sister Concha were adopted but their aunt and their uncle.
Their aunt was Isabel Bastilla who was his mother's sister and his uncle was José Piqueres who was a locksmith.
He had qualities for drawing since he was a kid.
He liked drawing a lot so his aunt and uncle decided to sign him up in an Academy when he was around 12
So, Sorolla as a kid, Joaquinito attended night classes tought by the sculptor Cayetano Capuz
And, he learnt a lot of things there.
They learnt looking at nude models, gypsum sculptures
They possibily copied as well drawings from the teacher or other teachers
And, as the kid was good already, with this, his training was amazing.
However, this doesn't stop here. The training was greater.
When he was 15 he entered the School of Fine Arts
Drawing classes in the School of Fine Arts at San Carlos where Sorolla attended towards 1885
So, this would be the first key: Astounding training
It was a process of learning within the classic standards but he knew how to make the most of it.
Although, let me tell you that later, he rejects the academy a lot which is very unusual but...
He rejected the academy, he didn't like academic related.
In the School of Fine Arts he met a friend of his, his little friend
He was very important in his career, he was Juan Antonio García del Castillo
He was son of a man called Antonio García
He had goatee as well and you may think: You are Antonio García, you are 300 years old, don't you?
Well, it was not me. I didn't go to Valencia at that time.
Well, this man called Antonio García Peris is our second key to understand Sorolla's success.
2- Photography
You may wonder: who was Antonio García Peris?
He was a photographer
But he was not a random photographer he was the best in Valencia or at least one of the best.
Doing photography for a living was the coolest
I mean, it was a technique which had practically just born
Only a few people were good at it
And, at the same time, it was very bold
It would like doing today, Youtube, for instance.
So, Antonio García who was the father of his friend bought Sorolla a small canvas called " Small painting of fruits"
Yes, that's right. It was called small painting of fruits. It was a small canvas with fruits.
I mean...not everything in painting is going to be about tragedy, skulls...
It was a nice painting of fruits
Sorolla liked painting nice things
He looked for beauty
However, that's another topic.
Film: Letters to Sorolla, 2006
By the way, this painting of fruits is now exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia
I mean, it is a small canvas of fruits
This photographer not only supported him buying some of his artworks he did much more for him.
He became his patron
According to what Antonio García's granddaughter María Teresa García Banús told
He helped him so he didn't sell his paintings "badly"
"Malamente" (badly). Why does it sound familiar to me?
(Song by Rosalía)
So, he not only bought him paintings but he also provided him a small room inside  his photography studio and not only that
He took him as a student, as an apprentice.
He taught young Sorolla, Joaquinito and he taught him plenty of things about the profession and also something really important:
Sorolla helped Antonio García lighting up his pictures
And you may be wondering: what is it to light up a picture?
Well, it was to provide light to the black and white picture using watercolor
He retouched the picture to get a flesh tone I guess or colouring dresses as well.
He worked with black and white and with chiaroscuro
And he learnt a lot from that
In fact, if you take a look at Sorolla's work, a lot of them look like pictures
Not only because of their color but also their composition, chiaroscuro, space's distribution, lighting...
So, Antonio García taught plenty of things to Sorolla
I think it was one of the best schools for him
3-Work
This is an essential key.
Sorolla was very hard-working.
He was working all the time. He was non-stop.
He had a strong vocation and even a titanic one.
Even his friend Cecilio Plá said:
We went in classes at 8 a.m in the morning
By that time, Sorolla came from walking around Valencia where he painted landscapes
His activity was extraordinary
It scared us all
Right, just imagine, a young person who not only attended classes but he also painted on his own a lot and drawn as well so much
Everybody was wondering: where is this boy's limit?
Curiously enough, it is the opposite of Velázquez
Velázquez, as you already know because I said it on a video, he was an indolent person.
People at the time considered him to be lazy.
He didn't like working that much
How is that possible?
Coming back to Sorolla. It is said he was a serious, organized and disciplined person.
Without those qualities he wouldn't be able to do all the pieces of work he did.
Blasco Ibáñez said in an article about him for the The Nation Newspaper from Buenos Aires
Ibáñez said Sorolla was Velázquez' grandson and Goya's son.
Evidently, the pictorial technique of Sorolla was very similar
It is within Spanish tradition, nothing important at all
Blasco Ibáñez said also as follows:
"For him, painting is the only thing it exists on this world"
"Painting absorbs his existence"
"If he didn't paint he would want to die"
"Outside it, his existence is calm, tough, monotone, without emotions, without songs and dances. It was as Don Velázquez' existance."
Velázquez again. Again comparing him with Velázquez. All right. Velázquez, then. Velázquez.
4- His wedding
Sorolla remained in Antonio García, I mean, the photographer's attic, until his wedding day.
So he almost lived there
Who did he get married to?
Clotilde García, the daughter of Antonio García!
That's the tea!
He got married with the teacher's daughter
At that time, that was very usual
We cannot forget that Velázquez married as well his teacher's daughter. His teacher Pacheco.
Here we are with Velázquez again. His life is connected with Velázquez'
In his moments of reflection he inspires himselfs with Velázquez
However, this sham he did I don't think it was a sham.
I guess they fell in love and they love each other because he was his whole life with his wife.
What I really want to tell you is that when he became a member of the García family
A very respected family in Valencia
It was a family with means, with cash
Plenty of cash
Well, they started promoting him among the jet set.
How? They introduced him socially
And, do not forget Antonio García Peris was a great photographer
Not he only took pictures of distinguished figures but he photographed pieces of art.
So, he photographed many of Sorolla's paintings
And, a picture printed many times was a great way of promotion
We cannot forget about this key: repetition, advertising.
Antonio García went with Sorolla to places such as Valencia Athenaeum or "Café España" where there were elite people
He introduced him to every intellectual of the time
And he entered in the group
By the way, Sorolla met there the sculptor Benlliure, among others.
Also, he had with him a good friendship until the end of his life.
5- Promotion
I have already talked about the fifth key a bit.
With all this promotion and all the exhibitions he did, when he was a bit over 30 he had already exhibited in the best showrooms in:
París
London
Berlin
New York
He also received important prices and awards in Munich, Paris, Chicago
In Chicago!
In Vienna...
In short, he received plenty of recognition. A lot of recognition.
It is as if Sorolla lived today and he had a Youtube channel or an Instagram account and he had lots of likes and started working a lot from there
This advertising was followed by success
He was like "Los Chichos" wherever they went, they succeeded
Los Chichos. Why have I said Los Chichos?
And like I said before, as he was not afraid of working he went on doing promotion
He went on painting, exhibiting and the ball was each time bigger and bigger.
6-  Which was his workshop?
He didn't really like painting in his studio.
He left it said in many of his writings.
His studio was outdoors. It was the sea.
He preferred it above all.
What's the issue behind this? The secret is here
If you paint outdoors, first of all, you have to do it really fast.
Light changes.
But not only that.
If you paint with regular people
For example, if you want to paint kids on the beach or a group of oxes
There are pictures of Sorolla painting these kids, a group of men or the sea and everything in real time
What's up with this? The brush stroke has to be quick and loose
But there is one thing else, one more secret.
We can see in the pictures that Sorolla painted with brushes which had very large  endings
This makes the brush stroke to be even more fluent
It is not possible bringing the brush closer to the canvas
He didn't use a maulstick. A maulstick was a small stick placed on the canvas so they don't paint outside the lines.
But he didn't have it. He had this long stick with the brush at the end and he painted flowy brush strokes. It couldn't be of different way.
You can also see this on the impressionist's paintings who have flowy or loose brushstrokes as well
The own experience ask you for it.
It is not the same painting as Magritte
He painted there on his living room, with his suit on, with his TV on one side and his wife looking at him calmly
It is different going to the beach on a hot day, with a hat, wearing a suit
Then, placing those huge canvases Sorolla used, tied them up with ropes, stones, sticks
And then being there with a model who is hot as you are
I mean you have to paint like this
Flowy lines, flowy lines
Sorolla himself said in 1904 as follows:
"I admit I do not like the studio for painting"
"I hate it with all my soul"
He also said this:
"I don't know how I haven't gone crazy because as I hate photography to draw a kid I have had it very difficult"
"Then, sea is an impossible clutter. It varies so much that you doubt and infuriate yourself wandering if when it is good what you are doing"
7- The picture as a support
Sorolla used photography to paint
Let's see: he didn't took a picture and copied it and did the same thing. It is not that.
He used photography for certain aspects
In fact, we can see in many of his paintings how the basis of the composition and even the basis of the drawing is a photograph
Sometimes it could be his or it could be from his
 father-in-law, Antonio García Peri.
There is nothing wrong with this. Since Renaissance, camera obscura was used to draw.
Delacroix used photography as a secondary element to his drawing practices
Even to avoid doing previous studies.
You didn't know this, right? You didn't know it? Well, now you do.
Delaroche used it too
And even Ingres himself used photography to draw
So, Sorolla used it too
It is true he didn't like using photography that much
However, when he didn't have the model in front of him or he needed it for something then, he used photography
It is as if we go now on google images and we look for pictures to support our work
Let's imagine we say: "I want to paint a pink platypus"
For intance, just to say something
So, I go and look for a pink platypus and then I create my own pink platypus.
My pink platypus
Priscilla Muller said Sorolla used pictures, for example, to do portraits when models were not there
In that case, Sorolla was a modern.
He used the latest technology which at that time was photography
However, do you think using photography takes merit away to Sorolla?
We can't forget that many Rennaisance painters draw grids on his drawings so they could enlarge their size
And, like I am saying, that's not relevant
The important is to do a good piece of work.
Having said that, it is important being honest and admitting you use photography to paint when you do it and explain how you do it.
It doesn't matter! What's going to happen? Nothing!
Sorolla collected photographies
He came to have 6000 pictures
This is information from the Sorolla Museum
It is as if we today save different pictures from the Internet and we keep them in different folders in our desktop
I guess you do it as I do it too
It's true that he painted where he had to as he said himself
I don't know if you remember this big project he did called "Hispanic Society of America"
Hispanic Soci...how do you say it?
Society?
Hispanic Society
As you like
Well, this was a fantasy Sorolla did
It almost ends up with his life
He came off badly of that one
They ordered him to do a board of 70 meters of length and 3'5 meters of height
And what does he has to paint in such a big board?
He had to paint Spain
The representation of every typical character in Spain
What did he do? Did he take pictures?
He didn't take pictures. He went to every place in Spain, to investigate and painting almost everything in real time
It is true he used some pictures to draw some sketches or one of the paintings but the majority of what he did for "Hispanic Society" was painting at real time, life drawings.
By the way, this is to do a whole video about how he did this project
It was complicated
If you want me to do it, tell me on the comment section below
And if I see you really like this topic I will investigate more deeply about it
Nowadays, Sorolla's work is breaking records in auctions all over the world
A Sorolla's painting reach the record quantity of 4,5 millions of euros in an auction
A skecth by Sorolla breaks the mundial record after been auctioned for 218.000 euros
Sorolla breaks his record in the United States
"Kids at the beach" by Joaquín Sorolla, the most expensive painting of the auction
I believe that Sorolla's painting is being valued in the proper way
He doesn't get insulted anymore
We cannot forget either that there was not a big exhibition of this painter in Spain until 50 years after his death
This was in 1963
I think Sorolla is reviving again as that new light from the Mediterranean sea
What a tacky thing I was saying here
Well, that's it. Sorolla is cool and that's all.
Cool. Sorolla is cool.
I really hoped you liked this video
I know there is right now an exhibition in the Sorolla Museum about his drawings
Let's see if I can go so I can tell you about it
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