The Spanish Manner

© Metropolitan Museum of Art

I've always had an affinity for Spanish painters. My student's are probably getting tired of hearing about Velázquez. I never visit the Met without stopping to pay my respects and view his painting of Juan de Pareja. It is disappointing to see it under glass. The natural quality of the paint is lost, as well as some of the volume. But next to this painting hangs a smaller portrait, once thought to be a portrait of Velázquez himself. In this piece it is possible to see the everything that it great about Velázquez: The restrained hand through the darks, coupled with bold assertive lights that establish the shape and volume of the head. The coloring is minimal, austere even. It is the value contrast that conveys the steady confidence of the sitter.

I had initially thought to paint something reminiscent of Velázquez for this project, but after hearing the planned music, I realized I'd need something bolder, and from a later time period. I settled on Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, a Spanish painter who lived and worked during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. His boldly painted landscapes, portraits and genre scenes capture the vibrancy and excitement of Spain. In the later half of his career, his early, tightly controlled manner gave way to a swashbuckling looseness of the brush well suited to the dappled light and seascapes he came to favor. After his death in 1923 the dominance of the abstract avant-garde in Europe caused Sorolla’s work to fall out of fashion. Since the Franco regime extolled Sorolla’s virtues, his work, to many in the later half of the twentieth century, is difficult to disassociate with the fascist interpretation of Spanish Nationalism. Yet when we look at Sorolla’s work, notably his Vision of Spain and related works such as Maria dressed as a Valencian Girl, we see not the monolithic and unitary vision of the Nationalists, but a celebration of the cultural diversity of the Iberian peninsula.