Joaquín Sorolla

Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo (acquired from the 1909 New York Exhibition through the Elizabeth G. Gates Fund; deaccessioned and sold: Parke-Bernet, New York, 14 October 1943, lot 63)
Purchased by the father of the present owners in the mid-1960s

London, Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of Paintings by Señor Sorolla y Bastida, 1908, illustrated in the catalogued (as The Glass of Wine)
New York, The Hispanic Society of America; Buffalo, Fine Arts Academy; Boston, Copley Society of Art: Paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida Exhibited by the Hispanic Society of America, 1909, no. 89 (New York); no. 61 (Boston & Buffalo; illustrated in the Buffalo catalogue) 
Toronto, Canadian National Exhibition, 1922
Dallas, The Texas Fine Art Association, 1923
Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, 1928
Dayton, The Dayton Art Institute, 1930

Aureliano de Beruete, Camille Mauclair, Henri Rochefort, Leonard Williams, Elizabeth Cary, J.G. Huneker, C. Brinton and W.E.B. Sterkweather, Eight Essays on Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, New York, 1909, vol. I, p. 295, no. 89, illustrated (as Viejo castellano)
Christian Brinton, 'Two Great Spanish Painters: Sorolla and Zuloaga', in The Century Magazine, May 1909, p. 31, illustrated (as The Old Castilian)
Thomas R. Ibarra, 'The American Success of a Great Spanish Painter', New York, 1909, p. II562, illustrated (as An Old Castilian)
'In Memoriam: Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida', in Academy Notes, Buffalo, vol. XVIII, no. 2, July-December 1923
Bernardino de Pantorba, La vida y obra de Joaquín Sorolla, Madrid, 1970, p. 190, no. 1622, catalogued (as Viejo castellano sirviéndose vino)
Joaquín Sorolla, 1863-1923, exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2009, p. 381, fig. 271, illustrated
Sorolla and America, exh. cat., Meadows Museum, Dallas & The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, 2013-14, p. 302, no. 32, catalogued & illustrated

The painting is in good overall condition and ready to hang. The artist's canvas is unlined and is joined horizontally circa 40cm above the lower edge; this appears to be entirely stable. There are some localised areas of fine shrinkage in the paint surface, notably in the lip of the jug, in the background above this, and in the brim of the figure's hat. Ultraviolet light reveals some signs of retouching which are minor relative to the painting's size, notably strokes to two repaired tears (c. 33cm vertically and 9cm at a right angle to this) in the background to the left of the figure, some clusters of flecked retouchings just below this, and some small areas in the figure's drapery corresponding to his left arm (some of which is likely to be related to the artist's pigments rather than retouching).
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work is one of a group of major life-sized figural compositions that Sorolla painted in 1907. Combining both an acute eye for detail and a confident bravura style, the canvases are split between two main themes: royal and family likenesses, and depictions of local types.

Sorolla embarked on the series while in the company of his daughter María who was convalescing from tuberculosis, first in El Pardo to the north of Madrid, and subsequently in Segovia, when he was commissioned to paint his flamboyant likeness King Alfonso in Hussar's Uniform in the palace gardens of La Granja de San Ildefonso nearby, and also took the opportunity to record María's much improved health (fig. 1).

That summmer too he journied still further north to Leon, where he made extensive oil sketches and drawings of local life. Taking an almost ethnographic interest in the regional variation that he encountered, from the studies that he made he worked up the present oil and the large-scale figural group Leonese Peasants, now in the collection of the Hispanic Society of America, New York. Sorolla's focus on the The Old Man of Castille recalls both his oil of a year earlier of The Blind Man of Toledo (fig. 2), and anticipates the local types that he would seek out and commit to canvas when painting his Visions of Spain for Archer Huntington a few years later.