This was the exhibition “Sorolla drawer” at the Sorolla museum in Madrid

Until May 10 you have the opportunity to see in the Sorolla museum de Madrid a exposure which shows the draftsman side of the great Levantine artist.

Sorolla, the great master of light and color, made more than 8.000 drawings and countless essays throughout his life with which he investigated, explored and prepared before creating a new painting.

He also made them in order to keep a memory of his family, who were the people he loved the most, or simply to entertain himself while waiting at a restaurant to eat.

He was a disciplined and constant artist, a prolific draftsman who never rested and all of this was reflected in his work, in his ability to capture the light and the fleeting moment that people have fallen in love with for generations.

La Sorolla exhibition, dtirelessly exciting tries to highlight this very little known facet of Sorolla, who only sent drawings to his exhibitions on rare occasions, and who also did not have the habit of hanging them in his studio where his clients could see them.

He only gave some drawings to certain people very close to him.

The drawing materials and the sensitivity of the paper to light that the painter used were very fragile, which is why they make this exhibition very delicate and, of course, exceptional.

The drawings now exhibited in the Madrid museum, although they do not maintain a chronology, in them you can see the evolution that the artist's line is experiencing.

La exposure It is located in the upper part of the palace. It shows more than one hundred drawings, all of them from the Sorolla museum collection, except three lent by the Complutense University of Madrid, which for the first time come to light to be seen by the public.

What to see at the Sorolla draftsman exhibition

The exhibition is divided into four themes in what were the private rooms or bedrooms of the Sorolla family.

Sorolla drawings, landscapes

In the first room you will see drawings made when Sorolla He was very young, having just finished his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos.

The artist's interest focuses on the scenery taken directly from nature, in line with what was done in the Levantine school.

He was inspired by masters such as the landscape painter Gonzalo Salvá, Ignacio Pinazo, Francisco Pradilla, Fortuny or the master Diego Velázquez, for whom he felt a deep devotion.

These marked his way of drawing and helped him towards the ideal path he wanted.

From his first drawings he explores with great mastery with different techniques, pencil or charcoal, watercolor, ink or gouache, which he will use throughout his entire career.

You can also see in this room and inside display cases, a series of drawing booklets that are preserved complete and bound.

Sorolla He used to always carry a notebook to draw, anywhere, anything that caught his attention, since he was a tireless observer.

Drawings of Sorolla's family and home

He has many drawings related to his family since his wife Clotilde and his sons María, Joaquin y Elena, were always the great source of inspiration in his life.

Together, in scenes of their daily life, or separately, sewing, reading or studying, they were perhaps the most beautiful drawings the painter made.

In them he captured the life of his family with its intimate moments and presented it to us through his paintings.

This was the place that Sorolla reserved for his drawings; Look at the photographs on display and you will see some of the drawings displayed on the walls.

There were large ones, and in fact you can see some in the exhibition, but most of them were small notes from his wife and children that the painter wanted to frame.

Joaquín and Elena studying in charcoal and red pencil on continuous paper, and Elena in Javea with charcoal and clarion on Bristol paper, are two of the beautiful works on display.

Great works, great drawings by Sorolla

In this section of the Sorolla exhibition You will see some of the most spectacular preparatory drawings of the exhibition.

Here you can see how meticulously he prepared his paintings, and how much study and premeditation was behind his canvases.

He always used drawing to study and prepare compositions, as well as train his hand and eye to create the desired painting.

They will catch your attention large preview drawings of the King Alfonso XIII and the Queen Victoria Eugenia.

They are more than two meters high and are shown for the first time.

It is a selection of preparatory drawings made on large-format dark paper, in which charcoal and clarion are combined, and are in themselves a great work of art since in them we can see the artist's creative process.

Drawings by Sorolla, the modern city

The success of his painting made him Sorolla Get to know big cities like Paris, London or New York.

La city ​​and modern life of which aroused great curiosity in Sorolla that he wanted to leave reflected in his drawings and color notes.

In them he gave free rein to his creative freedom and made works of great modernity.

Drawings made in the restaurants of the hotels where he stayed, for pure entertainment while waiting to be served.

Drawings made on the back of the menu cards, which reflect the bourgeois atmosphere of the time, elegant fashion as the protagonist of which he was also very fond.

There is an impressive collection of twelve views of New York, which are taken from the windows of a hotel room, are painted in gouache and are exhibited together for the first time in the Sorolla museum.

Bold compositions in gouache on paper, such as Fifth Avenue, New York 1911, trying to capture the dizzying movement of the city.

Curiously, these were not themes widely used in his paintings.

To see the exhibition you have to visit the Sorolla museum, which is always a wonder and a perfect excuse to delight in the work of this incredible master of light and reflections again.

Sorolla cartoonist exhibition schedules and prices

The exhibition visiting hours They are, from Tuesday to Saturday, from 9,30:20 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sundays and holidays, from 15 a.m. to XNUMX p.m.

The ticket prices They are, generally, 3 euros;, and you can visit the museum for free on Saturdays from 14,30:XNUMX p.m. and on Sundays.