A walk through Sorolla's Jávea
With the help of David Gutiérrez Pulido, a graduate in Art History and creator of the Sorolla in Jávea website, we take a tour of those emblematic places that every lover of the work of the Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla should visit on their trip to Jávea.
Joaquín Sorolla arrived in Xàbia for the first time in 1896, so this year marks the 125th anniversary of his first visit. On his first (there were four visits in total during his life) he only spent a few days, but it was then that he fell in love with its light, landscapes and the Mediterranean in all its splendor. Thanks to the letters he wrote to his wife (Clotilde) and to his paintings, inspired and painted in the different corners of Xàbia, we preserve a large part of its history.
“The Xàbia that Sorolla painted is basically concentrated around the old port of Xàbia, the old “Caleta del Racó”or “La Grava” beach. Today, this landscape has radically changed from how Sorolla would have known it, although if visitors wants to know the landscape as Sorolla knew it, they only need to walk through Montanyar I, go to Cala Tangó or go up to the Creu del Portitxol lookout ”. David Gutiérrez Pulido is a great expert on the relationship that existed between Sorolla and Jávea and organizes guided tours (both in groups and individuals) throughout the year. During his tours, he reveals all those places that Sorolla captured in his paintings.
“It is very difficult to choose a series of his work as they are all wonderful, and it must be said that Sorolla painted more than a hundred works of art, between his notes of color and paintings, but to make a selection in terms of years and according to his stays in Javea he would choose from 1896, The Cabo de San Antonio (Private Collection, BPS 1071); from 1898, La Caleta. Jávea (Private collection, BPS 769) or El Algarrobo. Jávea (Private collection. BPS 935); 1900: End of the Day (Private collection, BPS 982) and Transportando la uva (Masaveu Collection. Fine Arts Museum of Oviedo. BPS 976) and 1905: Clotilde and Elena walking on the rocks of Jávea (Private collection, BPS 1894 ), The white boat (Private collection, BPS 1846), Rocas de Jávea and the white boat (Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, BPS 1518) or La isla del Portitxol (Museo Sorolla, BPS 2418).
Sorolla's most prolific work during his various visits to Jávea suggests that the Valencian artist felt a great attraction to this paradise on the shores of the Mediterranean. His motive? “What attracted Sorolla was the light of Jávea, the contrasts between the mountains of “Los Cabos” which join with the sea, the clear waters, the variety of colors, a whole range of new resources that Sorolla was not used to and it was a challenge to be able to bring them to the canvas”.
Joaquín Sorolla was a pioneer and David Gutiérrez Pulido confirms this: “With his paintings of Jávea, he managed to get its name and its landscapes (through his art pieces) to numerous national and international exhibitions, thus achieving two things, showing the world the name and landscape of Xàbia, and to attract the many other painters who also wanted to come to Xàbia to capture the landscape with their own personal style. He was one of the first ambassadors of Xàbia at national and international level”.