The Sorolla Year is an excellent opportunity to get to know the corners of Valencia related to the life and work of the painter of light. A century after his disappearance, the City Council, through Visit València, proposes a tour for the neighborhood and tourists to follow in the footsteps of the teacher through his hometown. The first stop is at 8 Mantes Street, where a ceramic plaque reminds us that the artist came into the world there on this day in 1863.
Sorolla's biography begins in what was then called Calle Nova, now Mantes. The son of Joaquín and Concepción arrived in the El Mercat neighborhood at five in the morning on February 27, now 160 years ago, according to the birth certificate kept by the Municipal Historical Archive. The house where he was born was close to the fabric store that his parents ran at that time, an environment that influenced his artistic production.
Fashion and fabrics are closely linked to the creations of the painter, who pays meticulous attention to the costumes of the protagonists. His great-granddaughter recounts that, on a walk to Mantes street, where the family home and establishment were, the author took a tile as a souvenir of his origin. The ceramic piece is usually on display in a showcase in Room III of the Sorolla Museum, but at this time it is part of the temporary Sorolla exhibition. Origins, in the same cultural space in Madrid.
Sorolla. Orígenes has opened the program for the commemoration of the centenary of the creator's death. Organized by the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Museum Foundation, in collaboration with the San Pío V Museum, it explores the beginnings of the brilliant painter in the city where he was born, and will soon move to the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia.
Likewise, the route devised by Visit València reviews his childhood, his formative years and the settings that served as his inspiration, without forgetting the museum centers and local institutions that house his canvases.
The Valencia City Council is part of the state and regional commissions for the centenary of Joaquín Sorolla, created with the aim of promoting and coordinating the various activities that take place on the occasion of the anniversary, declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest until December 31 2024. During this period, the Sorolla Year will fill a large part of the cultural programming of the municipality, which started last Friday with the exhibition From darkness to light. Five centuries of art, in the Palace of Communications.
Among the commemorative acts planned by the council is the exhibition La València painted in the times of Sorolla, at the Benlliure House Museum, for next autumn, which will highlight the close relationship that Sorolla and the Benlliure family maintained for years.
