This morning, the Royal Collections Gallery hosted the presentation of Sorolla Íntimo, ARTIKA’s new artist’s book that offers an unpublished and personal view of the famous Valencian painter. The publication, created to commemorate the centenary of his death, brings together a selection of family drawings, unpublished letters and in-depth studies on his legacy.
The event was attended by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the painter’s great-granddaughter and patron of the Fundación Museo Sorolla, who has played a key role in the development of this project. During her speech, she stressed the importance of this work for understanding the artist’s most intimate dimension, as well as his relationship with his family. ‘This book allows us to get to know Sorolla not only as a painter, but also as a husband and father, through drawings and letters that reflect his love for his family,’ said Pons-Sorolla.
Enrique Varela, director of the Sorolla Museum, also spoke, highlighting the long collaboration between the museum and ARTIKA, which began 15 years ago with the publication of El Mar de Sorolla in 2014, followed by Los Paisajes de Sorolla in 2016. ‘With Sorolla Íntimo we close a trilogy that brings us closer to the essence of the artist, showing his most personal and everyday side’, emphasised Varela.
During the presentation, the meticulous editorial work of ARTIKA in the production of the book, a limited and numbered edition of 2,998 copies, which brings together an Art Book, with 71 unpublished drawings; a Book of Studies, which delves into his artistic and family context; an Epistolary, with 210 letters exchanged between Joaquín Sorolla and his wife Clotilde; and an exclusive art print, Estudio al natural, made in charcoal and red oil on paper, which shows the complicity between the artist and his wife.
The hand-bound volume has a canvas cover that reproduces a detail from the oil painting Instantánea, Biarritz, 1906, and inside it shows his most personal drawings, such as children’s games, afternoons spent sewing, napping, reading and studying, turning this book into an illustrated diary of the painter’s family intimacy.
The 71 plates, all life-size and die-cut, are organised into chapters Clotilde (his wife), María, Joaquín, Elena (his three children), Family Scenes and Self-Portrait. The book is prefaced by the director of the Sorolla Museum, Enrique Varela Agüí, and each chapter begins with a detail of an oil painting by the painter and an extract from one of his letters.
The event also included special mentions for key figures such as Manuela Guirió and Marta Carallero, editors of the project, and art historians such as Consuelo Luca de Tena, former director of the Sorolla Museum, and Covadonga Pitarch, curator of the museum, who contributed to the analysis of the work.
In the words of those responsible for ARTIKA: ‘For 20 years we have been dedicated to making artist’s books in which we aim to capture the soul of our artists, delivering that most intimate part, that essence of the artist’.
The event culminated with the traditional ceremony of ‘uncovering the work’, a symbolic moment in which the attendees were able to discover up close the meticulous handmade binding and the exclusive display case designed to preserve the work.
With the launch of this publication, ARTIKA and the Sorolla Museum close a cycle of collaboration that brings the figure of the artist to a global public, coinciding with the architectural renovation of the museum, which aspires to consolidate itself as a first-class cultural reference.
Sorolla Íntimo is available in limited editions through the ARTIKA Books website www.artikabooks.com.
