El pillo de playa

The Beach Urchin is an oil on canvas that Joaquín Sorolla completed in 1891, during the years when the Valencian painter devoted himself to scenes of the coast. The composition is simple: a woman seated on the sand mends fishing nets, while to her right a boy, lying on the beach, watches her. In front of them lies an overturned boat, which anchors the scene in the world of seafarers and the daily work of those who live from the sea. The seated woman occupies the centre of the canvas with a stillness that contrasts with the restlessness of the boy, and the whole conveys a moment of pause in the working day. Sorolla works here with natural coastal light and a palette that suggests the glow of the sand. The painting belongs to the artist's early interest in the realism of popular coastal life, a theme he would explore more fully in later years. It is today held in the Museo Sorolla in Madrid.

Painter

Joaquín Sorolla

Date

1891

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Museum

Sorolla Museum, Madrid

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