This documentary film aims to reveal essential aspects of the life and work of the great Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla, and the great effort he made to face the challenge of fulfilling the task of his life: 'Vision of Spain' for the Hispanic Society of America.
In November 1900, Sorolla is asked by the Hispanic Society of America, to make fourteen murals to decorate the halls of the institution, dedicated to the different Regions of Spain. He works on it from 1913 to1919. Three and a half meters high and seventy meters long, he built an unforgettable oeuvre about Spain. He worked for almost all the year of 1912 traveling throughout the country, making sketches and works of customs and landscapes.
The effort made over those eight years of preparation and travel, made his health deteriorate. In 1920, he suffered a stroke and three years later died without seeing his commission displayed in the Hispanic Society.
After his death, his fame and his work underwent a process of forgetting. In 2009 a retrospective exhibition of the artist was organized in Spain which included the canvases of the Hispanic. It travelled through nine Spanish cities and reached more than one million visits. This leads to a new recognition of his work as a great artist in the history of Spanish painting.
The documentary is produced by Time Xone and TVE, with the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E, and its filming has been developed in the Hispanic Society of New York, natural locations and in the museums of Javea, Denia, Valencia and The House of Sorolla in Madrid.
It includes testimonies of Antonio López, Blanca Pons Sorolla (artist's grandmother), José Luis Alcaine (academician and filmmaker), art historians Tomás Llorens and Felipe Garín, Mitch Codding (president of the Hispanic Society) and several researchers who analyze moments Key in the career of the painter to the production of "Vision of Spain", Sorolla's most important collection outside of Spain.
In November 1900, Sorolla is asked by the Hispanic Society of America, to make fourteen murals to decorate the halls of the institution, dedicated to the different Regions of Spain. He works on it from 1913 to1919. Three and a half meters high and seventy meters long, he built an unforgettable oeuvre about Spain. He worked for almost all the year of 1912 traveling throughout the country, making sketches and works of customs and landscapes.
The effort made over those eight years of preparation and travel, made his health deteriorate. In 1920, he suffered a stroke and three years later died without seeing his commission displayed in the Hispanic Society.
After his death, his fame and his work underwent a process of forgetting. In 2009 a retrospective exhibition of the artist was organized in Spain which included the canvases of the Hispanic. It travelled through nine Spanish cities and reached more than one million visits. This leads to a new recognition of his work as a great artist in the history of Spanish painting.
The documentary is produced by Time Xone and TVE, with the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E, and its filming has been developed in the Hispanic Society of New York, natural locations and in the museums of Javea, Denia, Valencia and The House of Sorolla in Madrid.
It includes testimonies of Antonio López, Blanca Pons Sorolla (artist's grandmother), José Luis Alcaine (academician and filmmaker), art historians Tomás Llorens and Felipe Garín, Mitch Codding (president of the Hispanic Society) and several researchers who analyze moments Key in the career of the painter to the production of "Vision of Spain", Sorolla's most important collection outside of Spain.