This fall, I got a chance to spend a few weeks in Madrid. Madrid has always been known for its art and painting scene but I never explored it much in my earlier trips. But this time, it being lockdown season with limited things to do, plus my recently discovered love for painting led me to spend a considerable amount of time exploring the various museums of Madrid. This time around for sure, I was able to appreciate them more plus learn a bit about how I can improve my own paintings too.
I visited the Thyssen, Reina Sofia, Prado and Sorolla museums during my stay. Most of them when they were free to visit. Given the pandemic, one had to book online even for the free slots, to limit the number of visitors. And surprisingly, the slots got booked very early on.
All these museums are different from each other. Thyssen has paintings from a private collection and so has an eclectic mix of painters from different eras, of various painting styles. Prado covers the pre-1800 art while the Reina Sofia focuses on the paintings from the last century. And Sorolla is dedicated to the paintings of only one artist, Sorolla.
(You can see the museum in 360 view here)
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| Woman sewing (detail) |
Of these, I loved Thyssen the most, then Sorolla, Prado and last the Sofia. Its not as much about the museums, as the art that I am drawn to more. Like I have not yet taken to modern art, to be able to understand and relate to it. And for the Prado, specifically they had a very limited collection on display given the lockdown. And somehow the pieces on display weren't all of my liking. I wanted to spend more time in all these museums but somehow, as usual time fell short. I took photographs of the paintings which caught my eye, and will write about all these soon, starting with the Sorolla.
To be honest, I did not know about Sorolla as an artist till I had visited Thyssen and the Reina Sofia. I liked his pieces in both the museums, and later realised he has his own museum in Madrid - his mansion house where he lived and worked which has now been converted into a museum. It houses a lot of his paintings, some owned by the museum and a lot of them loaned out to them. And so I decided to visit it.
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| Woman on the beach |
What drew me towards his paintings are their brightness, lightness and happiness. It felt different than what a lot of other artists depict. And I like that. Great art and artists are quite often valued for the pain, internal turmoil and unhappiness they depict in their art. But I always get drawn to the happier ones. Of people, landscapes and light. And I guess that's why I liked Sorolla. Most of his paintings have a bright cheeriness to them, which I love so much. Sorolla's style is a mixture of impressionism and luminism. And that is what makes them so happy and positive. And as they are impressionist, they look prettier from far than near 😊.
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| Kids on the beach |
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| Children in the water |
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Child playing in the
park (detail) |
The ground floor of the museum is full of paintings he made of his family and children. It felt like he had captured family moments and painted them. Of them sitting in the garden, playing in the water, visiting places and so on. It all felt like a family photo album put up lovingly on the walls of the family home. And they all felt so warm and personal.
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| Strolling along the seashore |
There were some landscape ones too plus some of people not from his family. But the ones of his family were definitely the ones which stood out. For the warmth and love they all had in them. And I loved those ones. My favourites were the ones of the ladies on the beach on sunny summer days. I also loved all the paintings he did with children. He captured their movements so well, you almost expect them to jump out of the paintings and start playing around you.
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| Woman on the beach |
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| Woman on the beach |
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| Girl on beach (detail) |
I took a few photos of the paintings which I really liked plus some close-ups of people in those paintings who looked very real to me. They did not all photograph well because of shadows, plus light falling on them at the wrong angles.
Also, here you can see that when you are close to the paintings, they look a bit chaotic, like a mish mash of strokes in different colours and directions. The detailing and the reason for those strokes is not clear. But when you take a few steps back, the strokes all start to make sense. They begin to come together to form something real, something full. The paintings look better and better as you move away from them. And it was fun to first see them up close, and then walk back to see them transform into something completely different.
The first floor of the house was an exhibition of some of the paintings of women Sorolla had painted in his life. Most of these were owned by art owners around the world and loaned for this exhibition. They were more detailed, of different styles and had a different theme than the family portraits on the floor downstairs.
There were a few portraits of rich and famous women that he had painted on commission which were all impressive. The ones which caught my eye though, were the smaller paintings showcasing scenes in ordinary people's lives - of a woman painting, or sewing or taking care of her children and so on. The colours on these were so vivid, and the detailing so well done that the characters were almost springing to life for me. I kept staring at a few of them for long. I would love to own a few of these for sure 😊.
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| Water colour of fisherwoman |
My favourite of these was this water colour he had made (one of only 2 water colours in the museum, as most of the others were oils) and I was blown away with the detailing. I never realised one could make such intricate paintings even with water paints. It gave me a definite goal to get to in the next few years 😊.
While leaving the museum, I started thinking about how his art was different. It made me realise that art can be dark or light, uplifting or depressing, real or fantasy. And a lot of it is dependent on the life the artist lives. Sorolla lived a rich comfortable life, he had a huge house in Madrid, a loving family, patronage of the rich and famous, his paintings sold well, he had enough wealth for a good life and he did not really have to struggle a lot in his life. And you can see that correlation in his paintings too - they were all bright and happy. For me, his art was still good.
One can always debate whether you need to experience pain and sadness in your life to create good art or take it to the next level. Something people like Van Gogh have done. I for one am not in that camp. And am perfectly happy with the kind of world Sorolla depicted 😊.
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