Sorolla’s happy colors

He had the sea in his veins, Joaquin Sorolla, painter of the brightest and most Mediterranean Spain. Born in Valencia in 1863, he was considered an authentic innovator of light and color and an absolute protagonist of the artistic scene of his time. He traveled constantly in Europe. Especially Italy, France, England. And for all of Spain, a tireless promoter of himself. He participated in the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition and other international events, achieving unparalleled success. Born poor, he earned a lot. The United States, where he exhibited in New York, Chicago, Saint Louis, San Diego, contributed not a little to his fortune. The powerful Hispanic Society of America, after having organized two traveling exhibitions for him in 1909 and 1911 and having counted 160,000 visitors in just one month of 1909, commissioned him to paint his Visión de España, fourteen squares more than three meters high each depicting the diversity of “Spain” and the life of its people.