Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

Miss Dorothy Whitney, New York (acquired from the Hispanic Society of America exhibition in 1909)
Ambassador Henry Prather Fletcher, Newport, Rhode Island
Mr. S. G. White (acquired in 1960)
Henriette Fletcher White

London, Grafton Galleries, Sorolla Exhibition, 1908 (possibly no. 23 or 26, 102, 121, 143, 144, 158, 196, 273)
New York, Hispanic Society of America, Catalogue of paintings by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1909, no. 116

Bernardino de Pantorba, La Vida y la Obra de Joaquin Sorolla, Madrid, 2nd edition, 1970, p. 192, no. 1649
José Luis Diez and Javier Baróm, Joaquín Sorolla, 1863-1923, exh. cat., Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2009, p. 383, illustrated as fig. 274
Thomas Llorens, Blanca Pons-Sorolla, María López y Boye Llorens, eds., Sorolla. Gardens of Light, exh. cat., Ferrara, Palazzio dei Diamanti; Granada, Museo de Bellas Artes, Alhambra; Madrid, Museuo Sorolla, 2012, illustrated p. 205, no. BPS 1894

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in perfect and untouched condition. The canvas is unlined. The paint layer has probably never been cleaned or varnished. There are no damages visible on the reverse except for one small spot that in the top of one of the white columns supporting the iron fence around the pool in the lower right. The picture could very easily be hung in its current state. There is faint cracking in the upper left and in a few other areas that can be relaxed. The painting probably would clean slightly, but this is not recommended, nor should the work be varnished.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Palacio de Carlos V, Alcázar de Sevilla depicts an area of the Alcázar that Sorolla painted frequently which was called the Jardin del Estanque, appropriately named for the large water reservoir which forms the basis for the pool. In the center of the fountain stands a statue of Mercury, with the figure perched atop cherubs and monsters with waterspouts in their mouths. It is one of a revelatory group of paintings depicting the gardens at the Alcázar de Sevilla that Sorolla made during his first trip to the area in 1908. He had been commissioned to paint the portrait of Queen Victoria Eugenia (private collection), which he intended to present at an exhibition in London that year, and in New York the following. He was inspired by the architecture and the reflective, contemplative power of the pools of water throughout the gardens, and it should be noted that there are no figures in these paintings. He worked at a furious pace and made no preparatory sketches for these paintings.

The pool is a natural subject choice for Sorolla. As Maria Lopes Fernandez writes, “Water is one of the privileged motifs in Sorolla’s oeuvre. The sea is the protagonist of his most emblematic paintings, and fountains become the epicentres of his courtywards and gardens. Water allows him to attain the highest degree of refinement in capturing light and the instant in his paintings. Water multiplies the possibilities for contemplating the facades of the Alhambra in Granada and the arcades of the Alcázar in Seville, which are 'narcissised' in its reflections. Water infinitely enriches Sorolla’s pictorial surface. For him, water is the essence” (Lorens, p. 96).

In the paintings that Sorolla created at the Alcázar and Alhambra, water is the essential compositional element. Aside from the horizontal axes of the architecture, Sorolla has chosen a view of the sun-struck palace that creates bold vertical lines extending beyond the top and bottom of the canvas through its reflection. His relationship to and use of photography is evident here, a medium that invited play with reflections and which became a popular motif in photography from this period. Sorolla’s own collection of photographs showed a fascination with reflected surfaces, and this interest, combined with photographic cropping and composition, can be seen in another work from his 1909 trip, Reflections in a Fountain, (1908, Fundación Museo Sorolla, Madrid, fig. 1) (Diez and Barom, p. 393). In Reflections in a Fountain, the Alcázar itself is not represented, save for a fragmented railing running across the top of the composition, but it is conjured through the pool where depth and surface spar. This study is expanded upon in the present work where the repeated archways are mirrored below, echoing the rippling water emanating from the fountain itself. The brilliant palette of golds and canary yellows, pure cobalt blue and hits of pink and green create a luminous impression.

Sorolla’s views of gardens at the Alcázar and Alhambra were enormously popular when exhibited at the Hispanic Society of New York in 1909 and 1911. Palacio de Carlos V, Alcázar de Sevilla was purchased by Miss Dorothy Whitney, one of the wealthiest women in America at the beginning of the twentieth century and a noted philanthropist and social activist who generously supported pacifist causes, women’s trade unions and education and the arts.

Please note that this work has been requested for the Sorolla & America exhibition at the Meadows Museum, Dallas (December 8, 2013-April 20, 2014), then scheduled to travel to The San Diego Museum of Art (May 30-August 26, 2014) and the Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid (September 23, 2014-January 11, 2015).