Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida Paintings on View > The Norton Museum of Art is the only U.S. venue of the exhibition “Sorolla and the Sea,” which has been organized for it by the Hispanic Society Museum & Library (New York City). On view are approximately 40 works highlighting a fascination with the seaside harbored by the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923). This is the first Sorolla exhibition to be mounted in Florida, and also the first large presentation of a 20th-century European painter at the Norton in 18 years.
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida Paintings: “Sorolla and the Sea”
Norton Museum of Art
West Palm Beach, Florida
norton.org
Through March 16, 2025
Sorolla grew up in Valencia on the Mediterranean coast and returned there often from his home in Madrid to paint and draw inspiration. Revered for his unique blend of realism and modernism, replete with unmixed colors and vigorous brushwork, Sorolla was hailed by no less a contemporary than Claude Monet as “The Master of Light.” On view nearby will be the Norton’s own paintings by Monet and another admirer of Sorolla, John Singer Sargent.
The exhibition encompasses the full range of Sorolla’s seaside works, including people relaxing on the beach and fishermen hard at work there.
It opens with two self-portraits, one of his palettes, and a lively bronze bust of Sorolla sculpted by his friend Mariano Benlliure y Gil. Also on loan are three works painted by Spanish contemporaries and the famous portrait Sorolla painted of his friend Louis Comfort Tiffany. Two Sorolla works in the Norton’s collection round out the selection.
About the Norton Museum of Art:
The Norton Museum of Art was founded in 1941 by Ralph Hubbard Norton (1875-1953) and his wife Elizabeth Calhoun Norton (1881-1947). Norton was an industrialist who headed the Acme Steel Company in Chicago. He and his wife began collecting to decorate their home, but then he became interested in art for its own sake and formed a sizable collection of paintings and sculpture. In 1935, Mr. Norton semi-retired, and the couple began to spend more time in the Palm Beaches. They contemplated what to do with their art collection and eventually decided to found their own museum in West Palm Beach, to give South Florida its first such institution. In 1940, construction began on the Norton Gallery and School of Art located between South Olive Avenue and South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. Mr. Norton commissioned Marion Sims Wyeth of the distinguished firm of Wyeth, King & Johnson to design the Museum. The Art Deco building opened to the public on February 8, 1941. Norton continued to add to his collection until his death in 1953, and the works that he and his wife gave the Museum form the core of the institution’s collection today.
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I live in dallas and only wish I could see this Sorolla show.