Retrato de Santiago Ramón y Cajal

This portrait shows the scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal seated, wrapped in a dark cloak, with a relaxed bearing and a direct gaze toward the viewer. Sorolla painted it in 1906, the year Cajal received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, and it was shown in the painter's solo exhibition at the Georges Petit gallery in Paris. Shortly afterwards it was bought by Pedro Gil, a friend and dealer of the artist. The pose combines elegance with a certain familiarity, and some readers find its attitude defiant, while soft light models the face and figure against a sober background. Beside the sitter are books and a drawing of the cerebellum made by Cajal himself, a discreet reference to his research on the nervous system. The portrait belongs to Sorolla's close ties with the Institución Libre de Enseñanza and relates to other works in which he depicted researchers at work, such as An Investigation (1897). It is now held at the Museo de Zaragoza.

Painter

Joaquín Sorolla

Date

1906

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

91 × 127 cm

Museum

Saragossa Museum, Zaragoza

Genre

portrait

Depicts

sitting, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, moustache, home office, bald head, dress shirt, overcoat, periorbital puffiness

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