Walter Finch
A LONG-LOST painting by Spain’s ‘master of light’ Joaquin Sorolla has gone on public display for the first time since the 19th century.
Paris Boulevard, painted between 1889 and 1890 during a visit to the French capital, has long been hidden from public view after it was immediately sold to a private collector.
It captures the lively atmosphere of a Parisian boulevard cafe at dusk in the belle epoque period, and even includes Sorolla himself in the scene, seated with a soldier and smoking a cigar.
The urban composition was a departure from the sunlit Mediterranean beach scenes that defined much of his oeuvre, showcasing a different dimension of Sorolla’s talent.
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The artwork was believed to have been lost until ‘a feat of investigation’ tracked it down to the original buyer’s descendents, according to Ana de la Cueva, president of Patrimonio Nacional, Spain’s national heritage institution.
It is now part of a landmark exhibition at Madrid’s Royal Collections gallery,
Included in the exhibition Sorolla, One Hundred Years of Modernity, the painting showcases the artist’s early technical brilliance.
Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the artist’s great-granddaughter and exhibition curator, notes the work’s ‘photographic’ composition and ‘virtuosic’ detail, highlighting how it prefigures Sorolla’s later innovative styles.
First presented at the 1890 National Exhibition, the painting immediately distinguished itself from contemporary Spanish art.
Its panoramic view, with figures casually cut off at the edges, demonstrates a radical departure from traditional artistic conventions of the period.
The exhibition features 77 artworks by the master until February 25.
