JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 - Madrid, 1923) Cabeza de perro

Oil on canvas 25,5 x 35 cm Dedicated, dated, signed and initialed ang. inf. right: Al amich Ton i/ el seu de tot cor / Sorolla / 1884 / Madrid. With label on the back: "Entrecanales / painting nº 3 / size 0.34 x 0.24 cm, Author Sorolla. With original certificate of Blanca Pons-Sorolla issued in Madrid, February 9, 2022 with inventory number BPS263. PROVENANCE: Juan Antonio García del Castillo, brother-in-law of Sorolla. By descent to his son Jaime García Banús. Widow of Jaime García Banús who sells it to José Entrecanales. Gift from José Entrecanales to the father of the current owner. BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. de Pantorba, La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla, Madrid 1970, p. 173, nº1165 (catalogued). 1884 GETS A POST AS A PENSIONER IN ROME AND BECOMES AN INTERNATIONAL PAINTER. This year was a very important change for Sorolla, he went from being a "student to a painter". One more year he will participate in the National Exhibition, but this year he wants to take the leap, to stop being an unknown. For this he embarks on what will be his most ambitious project known to date, his painting "El Dos de Mayo". With this work, our painter does not get the highest award, but one of the fifteen second medals awarded and, most importantly, the interest of the State in its purchase. This year Sorolla hangs his first work in a State dependency decorating the Presidency of the Council of Minister and it is bought for 3,000 pesetas. Sorolla achieves his purpose, to be better known. We remember when he said to Gonzalo Bilbao, after some time had passed, "Since you did not need to seek official rewards, you got rid of having to do your corresponding dead painting. The rest of us, at that time, if we wanted medals, we had to do a dead one", referring to the large format proofs of history subjects, imposed by the Academy. Along with this success, this year, comes another one that will turn his career around. The deputation of Valencia announces the competitive examinations for the position of pensioner of painting in Rome and Sorolla applies. The test consisted of three exercises, an academy, a sketch and a large painting (2 meters x 1.50 meters) dedicated to the history of Valencia. For the last test he presents the painting "El Palleter", his other great work of large format that leads him to success becoming a pensioner, unanimously in the jury, making the leap to Italy. Our painting is an example of what his awards already show us, Sorolla is already a painter with an advanced technique where he shows his mastery in the stroke, in the color and his ability to capture the immediate by painting in a natural way. It is also a sketch with an added sentimental charge for Sorolla, as we see in the dedication to his future owner, his friend and future brother-in-law, Juan Antonio García, brother of his wife, Clotilde.