Mubag becomes the space where Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) encounters the ancient world and its stories. Through his teachers, contemporaries, and students, the Valencian master is placed in a dialogue with those who shaped him and those who were shaped by him, creating a full panorama of his life and influence.
This dialogue is staged by the Alicante museum through a dedicated exhibition. It presents Valencian painting during Sorolla’s era in a series of conversations and contrasts, featuring 115 works drawn primarily from the Valencia Museum of Fine Arts and several other institutions and private collections.
As part of the Year of Sorolla in the Valencian Community, marking the centenary of the artist’s death, the show includes 18 works by Sorolla, some being shown publicly for the first time. It also assembles related images created for this event. Francisco Javier Perez Rojas serves as curator, guiding the collection in Alicante until 25 June.
“This is a exhibition with real depth,” Perez Rojas said at the opening. “We pursued a sequence that tells a story: from traditional academic painting to depictions of identity, regional life, working scenes, and portraits, culminating in landscapes that sit between urban and rural spaces.”
Among the centerpiece works is a portrait from 1894 by Sorolla, a piece shown during a US tour in the 1970s but not publicly displayed since 1984, when it was auctioned by Sotheby’s and acquired by a private collector. “This painting marks the artist’s shift toward a more naturalistic outlook. It stands as a predecessor to his modernist interpretation of another scene, Entre naranjos, found in Havana.”
Additionally, several works are exhibited in Spain for the first time, including Portrait of Doña Pilar Sainz de Vicuña y Arbide, Duchess of Montesión, with its oil boats and its study head. The show also presents related works by other artists tied to Sorolla’s circle, such as Nude Male Academy in Profile associated with Joaquin Agrasot; boats on the beach linked to Murillo Ramos; Tailors Guild Regiment connected to Bernardo Ferrándiz; Colosseum Vision tied to Jose Benlliure; and Portrait of Encarnita connected to Emilio Varela. A signature piece, Seville Alcázar’s Garden, bears Maria Sorolla’s signature, and it closes the exhibition with the artist’s daughter in late works.
four episodes
The curatorial narrative unfolds in four acts: the rebirth of the Valencian school; the Valencia-Rome nexus; representations of traditional rural life; and the human kaleidoscope found in portraits, rural scenes, and urban life. The show spotlights artists who influenced Sorolla, such as Emilio Sala, Munoz Degrain, Ignacio Pinazo, and José Benlliure. Contemporaries like José Garnelo, Cecilio Pla, Fernando Cabrera, and José Navarro are represented, while later generations include José Pinazo, Manuel Benedito, and Emilio Varela.
“These dialogues establish a conversation across time,” the curator noted. “There is a thematic sequence and a clear chronological arc, beginning with Sorolla’s early works and culminating in his landscapes.”
The president of the Provincial Assembly, Carlos Mazón, praised the exhibition’s scale and dynamism, highlighting how Sorolla’s legacy remains vibrant in Mubag. He emphasized that the Year of Sorolla, launched from Alicante, brings a light-filled painter to a city that has become a national cultural and tourist hub.
Mubag participates in a European museum digitization project
Regional cultural representatives report that the exhibition by Julia Parra marks the museum’s growth into a new Mubag, a venue that welcomed about 25,000 visitors last year—roughly double the 2021 figure. The effort aligns with the Diputación’s pledge to present top-tier exhibitions, including those devoted to landmark Valencian and Spanish painters.
Regional Cultural Secretary Ximo López announced that the Consell will declare 2023 as the Year of Sorolla in the coming weeks, with institutions offering diverse perspectives to deliver a high-quality cultural program for residents.
cooperation between museums
Half of the works hail from the Valencia Museum of Fine Arts. Mubag’s director, Pablo García Tornel, and his team emphasize that the collaboration should be measured not only in financial terms but also in cultural impact. It was the Alicante Provincial Assembly that initiated the Year of Sorolla in the Valencian Community.
García Tornel underscored the value of inter-institutional cooperation, noting that the distance between Valencia and Alicante is small and that cross-border cultural projects demonstrate there are no real borders between the two cities.