SOROLLA CENTENARY (2023) FULL SETID92937006
To mark the centenary of the death of Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre is dedicating a collection of commemorative coins to the most internationally renowned Spanish painter of his time and one of the leading figures in the history of Spanish art as a whole.
The collection consists of three coins: a 4 escudos coin with a face value of 200 €, in gold 999 ‰, a Cincuentín with a face value of 50 €, in silver 925 ‰ and in colour, and a silver ounce with a face value of 10 €, in silver 999 ‰, also in colour.
| Series | Sorolla Centenary |
| Year | 2023 |
| Colour | Yes |
| Quality | Proof |
| Alloy (‰) | 999/925 |
| Metal | Gold/silver |
SOROLLA CENTENARY (2023) FULL SET
Joaquín Sorolla (Valencia 1863-Cercedilla 1923), studied drawing at the "Escuela de Artesanos de Valencia" and shared a studio with José Vilar y Torres, the Benlliure brothers and Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench. He studied the work of Velázquez and other artists at the Prado Museum.
He travelled to Rome, where he became acquainted with classical and Renaissance art, as well as the great museums, and in 1885 he went to Paris to study Impressionist painting at close quarters.
In 1888 he married Clotilde García del Castillo in Valencia, and in 1889 the painter and his family settled in Madrid, where Sorolla became a renowned painter in just five years. In 1894 he travelled again to Paris, where he developed a style of painting known as "Luminism", which was to be characteristic of his work from then on. He began to paint outdoors, masterfully mastering light and combining it with everyday scenes and landscapes of Mediterranean life.
Valencia named him a favourite and meritorious son, and a street was named after him.
After many trips around Europe, mainly in England and France, he held an exhibition in Paris with more than half a thousand works, which gave him unusual international recognition, and his pictorial work became known throughout Europe and America.
Much of his unprecedented international success also came from his exhibition in New York in 1909, with works such as Afternoon Sun and Swimmers, among many others. He also triumphed in 1911 at the St. Louis Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.
In November of the same year he signed a commission for the Hispanic Society of America to paint fourteen murals dedicated to the regions of Spain to decorate the institution's halls.
In 1914 he was appointed an academician and when he completed the work for the Hispanic Society he worked as a teacher of composition and colour at the Madrid School of Fine Arts.
During his career Joaquín Sorolla accumulated a large number of prizes and honours both in Spain and abroad, being one of the most renowned Spanish painters both at home and abroad, and is considered one of the greatest masters of Spanish painting of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.