"I live in Javea so of course I know of the artist Joaquín Sorolla and how he would come here to holiday with his family and I have visited the Sorolla museum in Madrid which is set in his former family home. When I saw that Karla was giving a lecture on Sorolla I didn’t hesitate to sign up as I wanted to learn more about him.
Karla told us about Sorolla’s early life, how he and his sister were orphaned at a young age and how he became interested in art at around the age of nine. I did not realize that he studied in both Rome and Paris before returning to Valencia to marry Clotilde Garcia del Castillo. I found this biography of him to be very interesting, it made me appreciate the man behind the artist.
Karla presented a slideshow of various works, both landscapes and portraits. I particularly liked his paintings of children - commissioned works of privileged children born in the upper classes and those less fortunate, as of physically disabled children bathing in the sea in Valencia, entitled Sad Inheritance. Of course, we also get to see his own children depicted in his works.
All this background information was particularly useful as I went with Karla to the Bancaja Foundation in Valencia for a Sorolla exhibition of some eighty-six of his paintings. It was wonderful to see the originals of those that I saw on the slideshow in Karla’s studio.
Karla has an in-depth knowledge of the art world and the painters and has a talent for sharing that knowledge in her talks in a relaxed way."
