JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 - Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923). "Portrait of Señora Teodolina de Alvear De Lezica", 1907. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated on the right. Attached certificate of authenticity issued by Don Francisco Pons Sorolla. Work reproduced in: "Sorolla in the Valencian Collections", Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, 1997. Pag. 200-203, ref. 31. Work reproduced in: "La vida y obra de Joaquín Sorolla por Bernardino de Pantorba", 1970. Pag. 206, ref. 2000. It presents a small lack in the upper central area, near the hair. Measurements: 104 x 95 cm, 134 x 115 cm (frame). In this painting it presents two clearly differentiated planes. In the first one, an elegant lady of the high society, dressed in a party dress, gloved and showing a very wide neckline from which she exposes the splendour of her pearly flesh, very in consonance with the white tulles, silks and satins of her light dress. The brushstroke is shorter and smoother, a work of intense realism, so much to the taste of the conservative society of the time, and in which, as much or more than expressing the character of the sitter, it is important to know how to reflect the brilliance of a cluster of diamonds in the black hair or a bunch of pearls on the dress, that is to say, status. In the second plane, the excuse of a tapestry covering the wall is used by the painter to carry out an exercise in freedom, lightness and modernity, expressed in long, loose brushstrokes with almost abstract tendencies. On both planes, we are presented with the two Sorollas: the Sorolla of high society, the portraitist who paints what his clients want, and the restless Sorolla, with a loose and daring technique. The snowy, marble-like appearance of the distinguished lady, standing out against the dark background, helps to create a certain sensation of relief, of volume. In 1907, Sorolla painted a number of female portraits for which he charged respectable sums and in which he also emphasised the aristocratic and sometimes somewhat distant tone of the pose. The portrait of "Queen Victoria Eugenia with Mantilla", "Doña Josefina Alvear de Erráuzuriz" and "María Luisa Maldonado", daughter of Count Villagonzalo date from that year: this portrait of the Argentinian Teodolina de Alvear was commissioned from Sorolla through Count Artal and he painted it using a photograph, asking him to paint it in the Madrazo style and charging 7,500 pesetas for it. As early as his school days, Joaquín Sorolla showed his fondness for drawing and painting by attending the drawing classes given by the sculptor Cayetano Capuz at the School of Artisans in the afternoons. Awarded a prize at the end of his preliminary studies at the Escuela Normal Superior, he entered the prestigious San Carlos School of Fine Arts in Valencia in 1879. During his visits to Madrid in 1881 and 1882, he copied paintings by Velázquez, Ribera and El Greco in the Prado Museum. Two years later he was a great success at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts with a history painting, which prompted him to apply for a scholarship to study at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Having achieved his goal, Sorolla left for Rome in 1885, spending several months in Paris before arriving. In the French capital he was impressed by the paintings of the realists and the painters who worked outdoors. At the end of his years in Rome he returned to Valencia in 1889, settling in Madrid the following year. In 1892 Sorolla showed a new concern in his art, becoming interested in social problems by depicting the sad scene of "¡Otra Margarita!", awarded a first-class medal at the National, and the following year at the International in Chicago. This sensitivity would remain in his work until the end of the decade, in his performances on the Valencian coast. Gradually, however, the Valencian master would abandon the themes of unhappy children that we see in "Triste herencia", which had won prizes at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and at the National in Madrid a year later. Encouraged by the success of his resplendent images of the Mediterranean, and stimulated by his love of the light and life of its sunny beaches, he focused on these scenes in his more cheerful and pleasant works, with which he achieved international fame. In 1906 he held his first solo exhibition at the George Petit gallery in Paris, where he also demonstrated his skills as a portraitist. In 1908 the American Archer Milton Huntington, impressed by the artist's exhibition at the Grafton gallery in London, sought to acquire two of his works for his Hispanic Society. A year later he himself invited Sorolla to exhibit at his institution, resulting in an exhibition in 1909 that was a huge success. The relationship between Huntington and Sorolla led to the most important commission of the painter's life: the creation of the immense canvases intended to illustrate the regions of Spain on the walls of the Hispanic Society. He is now represented in t