# The Beach at Valencia

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/the-beach-at-valencia-rda70defe7986a4>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [SOROLLA Y BASTIDA, Joaquín](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6>)
- Date: 1851-1900
- Technique: Oil on canvas

## Commentary

Sorolla&#39;s approach to light and colour was rooted in the idiosyncratic Valencian school. Valencian art was notable for its efforts to capture the brief, passing moment by using rapid, unbroken brush-strokes and precision colourism. The vivid plein-air scenes, mainly Mediterranean, that the artists recorded in this style nonetheless preserved tonal unities, and might be better described as luminist than Impressionist. Sorolla arrived at plein-air painting via years as apprentice and journeyman in Valencia, Rome and Paris. Returning to Spain in 1889, he settled in Madrid, where his art began to undergo a stylistic transformation: he attached greater importance to changing conditions of light, and preferred scenes of Spanish folk life, especially in Mediterranean coastal areas. The Beach at Valencia is a good example of this kind of work.

## Related artworks

- [Boys on the beach](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/boys-on-the-beach-r77b9833d336435>)
- [Eating on the Boat \(detail\)](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/eating-on-the-boat-detail-r1e3c517db6e8cf>)
- [Eating on the Boat](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/eating-on-the-boat-r606929e496b685>)
- [Elena and Maria in Old-Fashioned Valencian Costume](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/elena-and-maria-in-old-fashioned-valencian-costume-r8f1c8afbe6332a>)
- [Kissing the Relic](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/kissing-the-relic-rbb77fae8bf9cc3>)
- [Portrait of Alfonso XIII in the Uniform of a Hussar](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/portrait-of-alfonso-xiii-in-the-uniform-of-a-hussar-r8f26f0a01c8bcb>)
- [Portrait of Aureliano Beruete the Elder](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/portrait-of-aureliano-beruete-the-elder-r6e72bb59379e82>)
- [Portrait of the Wife of Aureliano Beruete the Elder](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/portrait-of-the-wife-of-aureliano-beruete-the-elder-rc905149cb5582a>)
- [Return from Fishing](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/return-from-fishing-rb92eec85408d4d>)
- [Selling the Catch at Valencia](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/selling-the-catch-at-valencia-r75e1c7ab51d6d8>)
- [Waiting for the Catch, Valencia Beach](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sorolla-y-bastida-joaqun-r2f675d139e2bf6/waiting-for-the-catch-valencia-beach-r5e34eade2750ea>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)