Joaquín Sorolla

Esperanza Conill de Zanetti (commissioned from the artist); thence by descent to the late owner

La Ilustración Artística, Barcelona, 21 June 1909, p. 10, illustrated
Bernardino de Pantorba, La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla, Madrid, 1970, p. 14, no. 2054, catalogued

The canvas has been relined. There is some retouching visible under ultraviolet light, (notably several strokes to her right, a 4 by 12cm area below her seat, minor pinhole-sized spots to the strap of her dress, and 2 minor spots in her hair and in the seat), and three surface scuffs in her seat. Held in a simple narrow oval gold-painted wood frame.
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Painted in 1909, this portrait shows the creativity and diversity of approaches Sorolla employed when portraying different people. As he would write to Archer M. Huntington on May 1909, 'I am starting to notice that portraits can also be art (...). I am finishing the portrait for Bacon and the one for Morgan, as well as the beautiful Spanish (Cuban) Mrs. Zanetti, half dressed, Goyesque and exciting' (Sorolla y la Hispanic Society. Una visión de la España de entresiglos, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, exh. cat, Madrid, 1998-1999, p. 380)

Married to an eminent Professor at Columbia University, Esperanza also modelled for John Singer Sargent in the 1920s. A drawing by Sargent of her is in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington; another is to be offered for sale at Sotheby's New York on 1 December 2011 (fig. 2). Sorolla and Sargent had become close friends after meeting in 1903, and each painter gave the other a painting as a gift. Sargent assisted Sorolla in organising his exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1908, and was instrumental in putting Sorolla in contact with Archer M. Huntington, leading to his trip to the USA in 1909. It was during this trip that Sorolla accumulated a series of successes, and painted portraits ranging from the present work to that of President Taft.

Sorolla painted more than twenty portraits during his first trip to the USA, this one being one of the most outstanding according to Blanca Pons-Sorolla (Blanca Pons Sorolla, Joaquín Sorolla. Obra y vida. Madrid, 2001, p. 323).