Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Walk on the Beach
Joaquín Sorolla · Impressionism
- Artist
- Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923)
- Date
- 1909
- Dimensions
- 205 x 200 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Museo Sorolla, Madrid, Spain
Walk on the Beach shows the painter's wife Clotilde and their eldest daughter María strolling along the beach at Valencia in long white summer dresses, on a bright, breezy day.
A closer look
The sea wind catches the women's dresses, their gauzy veils and the large straw hat that Clotilde holds, filling the canvas with movement. Sorolla painted outdoors, quickly, with broad, confident strokes, and his whites are full of colour: blue and violet shadows, touches of pink and gold where the Mediterranean sun hits the fabric. The figures are cut off by the edges in a way that recalls photography, and the wet sand and shimmering sea dissolve into light. It is one of the most famous images of the 'painter of light'.
