Waiting For The Catch, Valencia Beach

Medium: Oil On Canvas
Size: 89 x 111 cm (35 x 43.7 in)
Signed: Signed and dated l.r.: Sorolla 1907

Provenance: Charles Tweed, Boston (acquired 1909); Harrison Tweed, Boston (son of the above); Barbara Tweed Estill (wife of the above)

Exhibited: New York, The Hispanic Society of America, Exhibition of Paintings by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1909, no. 67

Sorolla’s enthusiasm for painting en plein air on the Valencian Beaches is well documented. In a letter to his wife, Clotilde, the artist remarked “Today I have continued drawing, every time I am more enamored with nature, so much between the sea and the splendid sun I think my happiest days are those on the beach. Here Sorolla paints one of his famous beach scenes with vigorous, staccato brush strokes; the pigment is applied seemingly unmixed onto the canvas. Though brightly colored, the small figures on the beach in the foreground are dominated by the vast sea and endless sky.