About Joaquin Sorolla

Born in Valencia in 1863, Sorolla showed a natural aptitude for art and started art instruction by the age 9 in his hometown. At the age of 18, he went to further his studies at the Museum del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

While Sorolla is considered part of the Impressionist movement due to his painting of light, one of the main differences between Sorolla and the impressionists are his large bravura brush strokes, as impressionists generally painted with smaller brush strokes. His style is considered to fall under Luminism, specifically Valencian Luminism. What makes his paintings so unique is that they are decorated with beautiful large, thick brush strokes. The vibrancy and luminosity in his paintings showed that he was a master with his cool and warm colour contrasts.

A Brief History of Making Art Copies

Copies have been part of traditional art training which started as far back as the Romans copying Greek sculptures. This tradition continued on through the Middle Ages, where it was seen as both an honour and a learning tool, and the Renaissance. Even the famous impressionist artists like Claude Monet, who studied at the Académie Suisse, France (1858), Van Gogh at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1880), and Sorolla at Museo del Prado, Madrid (1881), copied art work as part of their training. These artists are but a few of many thousands who undertook this type of art education during the latter part of the 1800s. Many artists who called themselves self taught learned by copying other artists’ work. The tradition died down around the world wars and has since become revived starting in Florence, Italy, in the 1990s.