On the occasion of the centenary of the death of the great Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla Bastida, yesterday, January 23, the Sorolla Museum in Madrid opened the exhibition "Sorolla is dead, long live Sorolla" at the hands of the director of the Enrique Varela Museum.
A fantastic walk through what was his home, now a museum, through time and the evolution of techniques.
For this occasion, the Sorolla family and other museums have donated works that had not been together and that form an extraordinary set, not only of paintings, but also of letters, documents and belongings.
Next, in the Andalusian patio of the museum, the special edition of commemorative wine of the Centenary of Sorolla, produced by Celler Les Freses, winery located in the region of the Marina Alta, between Dénia and Jávea, where the painter traveled in 1896 with the aim of carrying out painting studies related to the cultivation of the vine and the production of wine for the Chilean viticulturist, industrialist, diplomat and politician Rafael Errázuriz.
Sorolla was amazed by the natural landscape of the mountainous spaces of the imposing Montgó massif, today a Natural Park, and its extension to the sea at Cape San Antonio, and the majestic cliffs around Cape San Martín or the cape of the Nao
During several stays over the years, Sorolla painted both the seascapes and the characters and tasks of the region, especially the field workers with muscatel grapes. These tasks of transforming the grape into raisins will attract the painter's attention and make a strong impression on him, to the point that he will make numerous drawings, notes and canvases capturing these tasks (blanching, drying, boxing) in scenes full of life. and work.
The painting "Transporting passes" has been chosen for the special edition case box, and Les Freses Winery, a winery that keeps alive the spirit of those workers and those vineyards of the Marina Alta, recovering the traditional cultivation of the muscatel grape that Joaquín Sorolla knew, wants to accompany the celebration of the centenary of the painter's death by making a 'Sorolla Centenary' case. . It is an oenological experience through three bottles of wine: 1 bottle of giró (Garnacha endemic to La Marina Alta and mountain variety), 1 bottle of Les Freses dry muscatel and 1 bottle of sweet muscatel wine. All of them keep the essence of those grapes, those workers and those landscapes that captivated Sorolla so much.
During the presentation, their winemaker Mara Bañó, moved, and who did a brief tasting of these varieties in a row, commented: “There is no one who has described in a more beautiful way what our region is like, its history, its grapes and its landscape. Even in paintings like "Boy on the Rocks" I can see my own son bathing on the beach of Las Rotas. Sorolla excites and tells through his paintings, the benefits of our land ”.
And he encouraged art lovers to visit the new exhibition at the Sorolla Museum, "it's like going to the beach, being in Madrid, everything is Mediterranean."
And how could it be otherwise, the inauguration ended with a toast to Don Joaquín with Les Freses 2022, "this vintage and this glass are dedicated to Joaquín Sorolla, for one hundred years of light, cheers" said Mara to close the act .
