Mother

Mother is an oil painting in which Joaquín Sorolla portrays his wife, Clotilde García del Castillo, and their newborn daughter, Elena, born in July 1895. Work began that same year, but the canvas was not finished until 1900. The scene is reduced to an almost single mass of white: mother and daughter lie in a bed under a large bedspread, from which only their heads emerge. This economy of means has led critics to describe it as a minimalist composition, with links to Catalan modernism and to impressionist ideas, though its figurative style remains rather traditional. The mother looks toward her child, while in earlier versions she seems to gaze at the viewer. The father is absent, yet his presence is felt in the filtered light and the whiteness that surrounds the two faces, softening the image as they seem to emerge from it. For these reasons, the painting is regarded as a break from Sorolla's usual conventions, offering a tender and respectful view of motherhood.

Painter

Joaquín Sorolla

Date

1900

Museum

Sorolla Museum, Madrid

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