It is impossible to understand the Valencia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries without approaching two totemic figures of that time: Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and Joaquín Sorolla. They are also the most successful creators (writer and artist) in their time; the novelist, journalist, politician (Republican) and social agitator, triumphed throughout the world with his works, acquiring a fame and fortune that generated great envy in the generation of '98. The painter, like Blasco Ibáñez, was recognized in USA, admired by the Monarchy and enjoyed glory and wealth. His works are among the most sought after internationally.
No one better described the misery of the lower social classes, the abuse of the powerful, the convulsion of a declining Spain, the paralyzing religiosity, and created a political current, "blasquismo", whose consequences still persist in our time. . Sorolla, master of impressionism and lighting, captured better than any other painter of his time the effect of light on the sea, on faces, on bodies, on objects, of a Valencia subjected to the fears of dark times. But both managed to achieve immortality. Both offered in their works a clear image of the turn of the century.
What has been said so far is nothing original, it was already known. On both characters there is abundant bibliography, studies and doctoral theses. But in this year 2023 dedicated to the figure of Joaquín Sorolla in the Valencian Community, it is worth rescuing the friendship of two geniuses who maintained not a few complicities throughout their lives and, also, not a few disagreements. With a strong personality, but also very different in private morality: one was a passionate, seductive man who ate the world in bites and as Josep Pla said "he was a man full of glory"; the other was more conservative, reserved, discreet in his private life, very fond of his family. But despite these, they admired each other until the last of their days.
Blasco Ibáñez, with his "naturalistic" style, recounted in 1923, shortly after the painter's death, how he met Sorolla: "Many times, while wandering the beach mentally preparing my novel (Flor de Mayo), I found a painter young man – he was only five years older than me – who worked in full sun, magically reproducing on his canvases the gold of light, the invisible color of the air, the throbbing blue of the Mediterranean, the transparent and solid whiteness of the sails at the same time , the blond and carnal mass of the great oxen cutting the wave majestically when pulling the boats".
Berta Rubaki Yago, curator at the Casa Museo, tells it in the latest issue of the magazine Prometeo published by the Casa Museo Blasco Ibáñez that Emilio Sales has provided to this newspaper. "Vicente Blasco Ibáñez bids farewell to his friend Joaquín Sorolla, placing him in memory, and forever, on the beach where he met him. With this gesture he closes the chapter on the relationship that both had in life to open the window that we intend to explore today: the friendship that transcends them", adds Yago.
The curator recognizes "the complex personality of both artists, who on more than one occasion express dissimilar opinions on various issues, political sympathies or married life." But she highlights the mutual admiration they declared, as can be seen in the scant correspondence that has been preserved. In one of these, Blasco Ibáñez wrote: "Illustrious master: I have just read in the newspapers the inauguration of your Exhibition. Success, visits, pats, ears, etc. etc. as befits the great right-hander of Spanish painting. Very good: receive a hug: I did not expect less and the thing does not surprise me".
In another letter, Sorolla wrote to his friend to tell him about reading his last work on that date, which was El Intruso, published at the end of June 1904: "I have just read your stupendous work, it is marvelous and the best I have ever seen." You have made the date: I have feverishly enjoyed the beauty of thought, what has been adjusted to the truth and I have lived in Bilbao for more hours. They are people I know, all of them, I do not expect anyone to ever get to the bottom of things like you, nor Zola nor anyone. You are a colossal artist, I feel happy to live among you, to be your countryman, to be your friend, and to love you with the admiration of superior things. I feel the pleasure of the satisfaction of one's own thing, long live art".
The French art historian Jordane Fauvey has thoroughly studied the friendship between two artists who reflected the other in their works: Sorolla painted Blasco and Blasco generated a character from a novel inspired by Sorolla, and the result was not always pleasing. There was a certain deterioration of the friendship towards the end of the first decade of the 20th century, when both were triumphing in the US, which made them the most international Spanish artists of the moment.
In an interview in 1909, Sorolla was very critical of Blasco Ibáñez: "We became good friends, although later not so good because he is the most shameless man you can imagine. And I can't stand that. I can't give him the hand to a man who has no qualms about being unfaithful in his marital relations. It is true that for most men a woman is not enough but it is not my case - I am chaste. I have my job and that is enough for me. I am sure that I could be content with that if I had to - and that is that all great artists are pure. So it has to be. The greatest. Human energy must not be wasted in this way. It must be preserved, and then one has the strength of a tiger for work – work. And you have to paint and paint and paint. There is no other choice. Yes, I am chaste!"
But despite these differences, their admiration and respect remained until the end of their lives. Fauvey tells Prometeo magazine that "Sorolla died in Cercedilla on August 10, 1923 and was buried on the 13th in Valencia. The following day, El Pueblo published a special issue. On the day of the burial, Blasco was not present, but the newsroom from the newspaper attended the event. Félix Azzati, the then director; Arturo Perucho, José Fernández Serrano, Rigoberto Soler, Julio Just Jimeno and others opposed the protocol as it had been agreed between the family and the Valencian authorities. These men wanted to bring the coffin on his shoulders, Azzati got into the car and seized the coffin, shouting: "Sorolla is ours, he is from Valencia! Valencia wants to take him to the garden of the dead on his heart!" (Malboysson, 1923). In front of the North station, there was great confusion, a lot of tension and they even came to blows".
Fauvey concludes that "The boxing of August 13 was the prelude to the controversy that would gain more consistency under the Dictatorship and that would last during the Second Republic. Madrid and Valencia would advocate two different visions of Sorolla, the first nationalist and conservative, the other second regionalist and republican".
Time and memory have been fairer with Sorolla than with Blasco Ibáñez. The painter's work is valued more each year, but this is not the case of the Valencian novelist, who never fit in with the generation of '98 and whose novels, except those with a Valencian theme such as La Barraca or Cañas y barro, have aged poorly. But it is difficult to separate one from the other, because both were part of the same city, of the same time, and both achieved unprecedented success in other creators.
