Sorolla - Promenade au bord de mer

Spanish painter, often inspired by the seaside, very influenced by Impressionism, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) painted numerous scenes of beaches or rocky seasides, mixing lyricism and realism. His characters are mainly women and children, drawn on the Mediterranean beaches bathed in light, like those of Jávea which he visited in 1896, 1898, 1900 and 1905. Sorolla uses an unusual photographic angle in painting and a range restricted chromaticity of blues, sandy browns and whites, mastering the latter brilliantly. His style has been described as impressionist, post-impressionist or even luminist. In “Walk by the Sea” Clotilde García del Castillo, the painter's wife, and María Clotilde, their eldest daughter, are shown walking on the Malvarrosa beach. Sorolla never sold this painting. When he died in 1923, it passed to his son Joaquín Sorolla García, who bequeathed it to the Sorolla Museum.