Joaquín Sorolla

José Piqueres (the artist's uncle), Valencia
María Sorolla García (the artist's daughter, by descent from the above), Madrid
Francisco Pons-Sorolla y Arnau (by descent from the above, his mother)
Thence by descent 

Madrid, Cason del Buen Retiro, I Centenario del nacimiento de Sorolla, 1963, no. 5
New York, IBM Gallery of Science; Saint Louis Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; Valencia, IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, The painter, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, March 1989 - January 1990, no. 4 

Bernardino de Pantorba, La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla. Estudio biográfico y crítico, Madrid, 1970, no. 661
Trinidad Simó, J. Sorolla, Valencia, 1980, n.p., no. 20, illustrated
Carlos Gonzalez and Montse Martí, Pintores Españoles en Roma, Barcelona, 1987, p. 215
Edmund Peel, ed., Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, exh. cat., IBM Gallery of Science, New York; Saint Louis Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, 1989, p. 212, no. 4, illustrated
Blanca Pons-Sorolla, Joaquín Sorolla. Vida y obra, Madrid, 2001, no. 15
Maria Jesus Díaz, Eciclopedia Ilustrada de Sorolla, Madrid, 2009, p. 25, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work in good condition. It has an old non-wax lining. The paint layer is clean and still well textured. The varnish is quite glossy and could be re-examined. Under ultraviolet light, one can see a few small specks of retouching in the hair above the figure's temple and in two areas to the right of her ear. There are numerous small spots of retouching in the background on the left side, which are probably aimed to reduce a slightly uneven paint layer here. There are similar retouches in the lighter colors of the blouse, some of which may address actual losses and some of which may be more cosmetic in nature. There is one restoration in her cheek, the face is otherwise unrestored.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Cabeza de italiana (Head of an Italian Girl) was painted while Joaquín Sorolla was a student at the Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome, and was fondly dedicated to his uncle “Pepe,” José Piqueres.  After the death of his parents in 1865, at the age of two, Sorolla and his younger sister Concha were adopted by his aunt Isabel and her husband, José, a locksmith in Valencia. The young Sorolla, nicknamed “Chimet,” showed an early aptitude for drawing, and though his uncle hoped he would apprentice his trade, he supported the young artist’s development.  After years of study and well-received early compositions, Sorolla set his sights beyond Spain, and with his El Grito des Palleter (The Palleter declaring War on Napoleon, Disputación de Valencia) in 1884, won a competitive study grant to Rome sponsored by Valencia’s provincial council.  In January 1885, just before turning twenty-two, Sorolla left for Italy, and upon arrival, visited Francisco Pradilla, director of the Academia, and was introduced to influential teachers José Villegas and Emilio Sala, along with fellow students— many from his native Valencia, including José and Mariano Benlliure.  While receiving instruction from masters of grand academic painting was critical to Sorolla’s foundation, the lessons learned did not align with his own burgeoning artistic sensibilities (Jose Luis Diez and Javier Barón, “Joaquín Sorolla, Painter,” Joaquín Sorolla 1863-1923,  exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2009,  p. 22-3;  Francisco Pons Sorolla, “The Painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida,” The Painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, exh. cat., 1989, p. 19-20).  After only a few months in Rome, Sorolla, like so many of his young contemporaries, felt the lure of Paris, sketching the busy boulevards and crowded cafés as he experienced them.  He also visited the Salon and retrospective exhibitions  of Adolf von Menzel and Jules Bastien-Lepage whose naturalism had a particularly profound impact.  Indeed, it was in Paris, as the early artist and art critic Aureliano de Beruete remarked, that “for the first time Sorolla would open his eyes to the movement that was beginning in modern painting” and  would inform works like Cabeza de italiana (as quoted in Blanca Pons Sorolla, Joaquín Sorolla, n.d., p. 60).   

Returning to Rome, Sorolla continued to experiment with a myriad of styles, techniques and subjects—from religious and literary painting (in part to fulfill the demands of his grant) to sensual scenes of Greco-Roman civilization which aligned with the work of his Spanish colleagues. Although elements of these compositions, particularly his bold handling of color and line, are evident in the present work, the energetic brushwork that builds the young model’s costume and wavy hair, and the careful attention to minute elements of her expression, point to the naturalists Sorolla encountered in Paris (as well as Italian naturalists like Francisco Paolo Michetti (1851-1929)). Although the identity of the model is not recorded, it would seem she was studied from life, her portrait both capturing her specific personality and elevating her to an icon of rural life in a manner similar to the work of realist painter Jules Breton (see lots 10, 13).  In the year before the present work’s execution, Sorolla had been criticized for just such “sketches from life” by the Academie when submitting his Tres cabezas de hombre for shipment to Valencia.  Such unfavorable reviews may point to why Cabeza de italiana  was, like a similar sketch dedicated to his wife Clotilde, given to beloved family rather than submitted for official review or included in the works the artist sold to dealers to supplement his travel stipend (fig. 1).  Indeed, in some ways for Sorolla, Cabeza de italiana was ahead of its time—and in many ways it foreshadowed his mature style, which would earn him international fame.