JOAQUÍN SOROLLA | Tipos Segovianos (People from Segovia)

Estate of the artist (series K no.3)
Elena Sorolla (the artist's daughter, by descent from the above)
Private collection, Spain
Private collection, Spain (by 2001)

Venice, XV Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Città di Venezia, 1926
Madrid, Casón del Buen Retiro; Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, I Centenario del Nacimiento de Sorolla, 1963, no. 98
Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza; Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, Sorolla y la Hispanic Society: Una visión de la España de Entresiglos, 1999, no. 14, illustrated

Bernardino de Pantorba, Sorolla, Madrid, 1963, n. p., illustrated
José Manaut Vigliette, Crónica del Pintor Joaquín Sorolla, Madrid, 1964, pp. 114-15 illustrated
Bernardino de Pantorba, La Vida y la Obra de Joaquín Sorolla, Madrid, 1970, p. 116, illustrated, p. 143, no. 345, catalogued

On 26^th October 1911, Sorolla signed a contract in Paris with Archer Milton Huntington, founder of the Hispanic Society of America, for 150,000 dollars to decorate the library of the Hispanic Society of America, which at that point had not yet been constructed. Titled Visión de España, Sorolla was given 5 years to provide a monumental painting cycle measuring from three to three and a half meters high by seventy meters long. Huntington had originally wanted each section to be based on individual periods in history however, Sorolla thought it more appropriate to depict the characteristics of the various regions, allowing him greater artistic freedom. From the beginning of 1912, Sorolla spent much of his time working on the composition of these panels. He believed that the best way to gain knowledge of the reality and diversity of contemporary Spain was to travel through it. To create his first panel Castilla. La Fiesta del pan, Sorolla´s first challenge was to paint the region of Castilla y León, undoubtedly one of the more important of this series. After travelling to Toledo and Lagartera in March, he visited Segovia where he created two works of identical size (192 by 200 cm) Tipos Segovianos, this work, and one which can be found in the Sorolla Museum, Madrid (N.inv 960).

Sorolla put incredible energy into this project, so much so that on July 20 1919 he wrote to Huntington proudly saying ‘I finished with the help of God the commission that you gave me; It is all done, after much suffering and pleasure…And I hope my dear friend Archer that those happy days will be repeated with your powerful help’.



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Blanca Pons Sorolla, who will be including it in the forthcoming Sorolla catalogue raisonné (BPS 2971).