Autorretrato Joaquín Sorolla (1904)

This self-portrait by Joaquín Sorolla, dated 1904 and held in the Museo Sorolla in Madrid, belongs to a group of self-portraits the painter made over the years. He painted it when he was just approaching forty, and his calm, assured pose suggests the confidence of an artist in his prime and at the height of his professional success. Sorolla shows himself in his own studio, gazing straight at the viewer with a fixed, penetrating and almost challenging look. The picture works as a tribute to his craft, and for it he drew inspiration from Velázquez, particularly from the self-portrait the Sevillian master included in Las Meninas. These references appear in the depth of the space, suggested only by the canvases on the walls, in the blank canvas on the right and in a sober, dark palette rooted in the Spanish Golden Age, where light falls only on the areas meant to stand out, such as the shirt collar framing the face. Within post-Impressionism, the painting thus speaks more to Spanish tradition than to loose, broken brushwork.

Painter

Joaquín Sorolla

Date

1904

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

66 × 101 cm

Museum

Sorolla Museum, Madrid

Movement

Post-impressionism

Genre

self-portrait

Depicts

Joaquín Sorolla

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