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拍品专文
Few artists exemplify as well as Joaquín Sorolla the attraction for light at the start of Spain's contemporary era. As an artist, he is best known for his sun-filled beach scenes in which the play of light becomes the subject matter. Sorolla was especially well-known for his ability to paint en plein air and to work quickly in order to capture the effect of light on sun, sand, figures and fabrics.
La Playa, Biarritz is an apunte; small in scale and rapidly painted. These works are not considered sketches, but are independent works not intended as studies for larger more finished paintings. In these small, intimate paintings the true genius of the artist is made manifest. These apuntes are characterized by lively brushwork, an ability to render atmosphere and color with a great economy of means and to distill into their simplest form the qualities for which the artist is most famed.
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Joaquin Sorolla first met in 1909 at the Hispanic Society of America in New York's exhibition of Sorolla's works. It was most like at this meeting that Tiffany commissioned Sorolla to paint his portrait (fig. 1); however, it was not until 1911 on Sorolla's second trip to the United States that the commission could be completed. Sorolla's finished portrait placed Tiffany where he was the happiest and most comfortable: at his easel in his beloved garden at Laurelton Hall and is the most recognizable portrait of Tiffany today. After, Tiffany's death, the Tiffany family donated the portrait to the Hispanic Society.
Tiffany purchased four paintings from the 1909 exhibition, and it is very possible that the number 153 on the reverse of the present lot refers to number 153 in Catalogue of Paintings brought to America by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 9 February to 9 March 1909 and entitled La Playa, Biarritz in the catalogue. Tiffany's others purchases from the exhibition included number 73, Idilio (Idyll); number 116, Palacio de Carlos V Seville (Pavilion of Charles V) and number 104, Nina con Lazo Azul, Valencia, (Little Girl and Blue Ribbon). These three paintings were sold at the Parke-Bernet Galleries sale of The Extensive Collection of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, 24-28 September 1946, lots 1001, 998, 997, respectively. The present painting was inherited by Tiffany's eldest child, Mary Woodridge Tiffany at the time of his death in 1933 and has descended in the family to the present owner.
Mary Woodridge Tiffany married Graham Lusk in 1899. The Tiffany and Lusk families had a long and close relationship. Graham's father, William Thompson Lusk, in addition to being the Tiffany family personal physician, commissioned Tiffany's Associated Artists to design his home in 1882. This interior, one of Associated Artists' earliest commissions, incorporated amber glass transoms, stenciled and bronze coffers and a tiled fireplace surround, all elements that Tiffany continued to use in his later designs (See George W. Sheldon, Artistic Houses, 1883, vol. 1, part 2 b).
We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for confirming the authenticity of this painting, which will be included in her forthcoming Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida catalogue raisonné with the provisional number BPS 3550.
(fig. 1) Joaquín Sorolla, Louis Comfort Tiffany, The Hispanic Society of America, New York.
La Playa, Biarritz is an apunte; small in scale and rapidly painted. These works are not considered sketches, but are independent works not intended as studies for larger more finished paintings. In these small, intimate paintings the true genius of the artist is made manifest. These apuntes are characterized by lively brushwork, an ability to render atmosphere and color with a great economy of means and to distill into their simplest form the qualities for which the artist is most famed.
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Joaquin Sorolla first met in 1909 at the Hispanic Society of America in New York's exhibition of Sorolla's works. It was most like at this meeting that Tiffany commissioned Sorolla to paint his portrait (fig. 1); however, it was not until 1911 on Sorolla's second trip to the United States that the commission could be completed. Sorolla's finished portrait placed Tiffany where he was the happiest and most comfortable: at his easel in his beloved garden at Laurelton Hall and is the most recognizable portrait of Tiffany today. After, Tiffany's death, the Tiffany family donated the portrait to the Hispanic Society.
Tiffany purchased four paintings from the 1909 exhibition, and it is very possible that the number 153 on the reverse of the present lot refers to number 153 in Catalogue of Paintings brought to America by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 9 February to 9 March 1909 and entitled La Playa, Biarritz in the catalogue. Tiffany's others purchases from the exhibition included number 73, Idilio (Idyll); number 116, Palacio de Carlos V Seville (Pavilion of Charles V) and number 104, Nina con Lazo Azul, Valencia, (Little Girl and Blue Ribbon). These three paintings were sold at the Parke-Bernet Galleries sale of The Extensive Collection of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, 24-28 September 1946, lots 1001, 998, 997, respectively. The present painting was inherited by Tiffany's eldest child, Mary Woodridge Tiffany at the time of his death in 1933 and has descended in the family to the present owner.
Mary Woodridge Tiffany married Graham Lusk in 1899. The Tiffany and Lusk families had a long and close relationship. Graham's father, William Thompson Lusk, in addition to being the Tiffany family personal physician, commissioned Tiffany's Associated Artists to design his home in 1882. This interior, one of Associated Artists' earliest commissions, incorporated amber glass transoms, stenciled and bronze coffers and a tiled fireplace surround, all elements that Tiffany continued to use in his later designs (See George W. Sheldon, Artistic Houses, 1883, vol. 1, part 2 b).
We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for confirming the authenticity of this painting, which will be included in her forthcoming Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida catalogue raisonné with the provisional number BPS 3550.
(fig. 1) Joaquín Sorolla, Louis Comfort Tiffany, The Hispanic Society of America, New York.