Art of Madrid

Madrid

‘Shadow of the Boat’ by Joaquin Sorolla (1903)

Visitors here almost invariably make the Prado Museum their first destination, and rightly so: It is one of the finest collections in the world, beautifully mounted and remarkably accessible. As Ernest Hemingway once quipped, people are surprised to see the Prado’s famous canvases “right there. .  .  . They get their money’s worth in Italy where the museums are rarely open and when they are, the paintings are poorly lit and placed well above eye level.” But the Spanish capital is also home to a number of smaller collections that are all but unknown to foreign art lovers. To reach them you need only a good city map and a ticket on Madrid’s excellent underground railroad, the Metro.

Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923) was one of the leading Spanish painters of his day, known for his representations of gardens and seascapes. In fact, however, he was a remarkably versatile artist whose work included portraits of important personalities, stylistically somewhat similar to the work of his Anglo-American contemporary John Singer Sargent. His home and studio are now open to the public, and the rooms are full of examples of his work. Apart from the paintings, the house with its stunning Andalusian patio affords visitors a chance to see how a successful professional lived in Spain during the period around the First World War. Tiffany lamps, Art Deco furniture, and ubiquitous Spanish tiles provide a charming setting. Sitting on one table is an inscribed photograph of President William Howard Taft, who had sat for the artist in Washington; on another is a photograph of King Alfonso XIII, a personal friend, with a witticism inscribed at the bottom (“What do you think of the lighting here?”). Perhaps most interesting are the murals in the upstairs bedrooms which are rough drafts for those which Sorolla executed for the Hispanic Society of America in New York.