Joaquín Sorolla

JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 – Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923).
"Portrait of Mrs. Teodolina de Alvear De Lezica," 1907.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated on the right-hand side.
We would like to thank Ms. Blanca Pons Sorolla for her assistance in cataloging this work.
A certificate of authenticity issued by Mr. Francisco Pons Sorolla is attached.
Work reproduced in: "Sorolla in the Valencian Collections," Valencia Museum of Fine Arts, 1997. pp. 200–203, ref. 31.
Work reproduced in: “The Life and Work of Joaquín Sorolla by Bernardino de Pantorba,” 1970. P. 206, ref. 2000.
Measurements: 104 x 95 cm, 134 x 115 cm (frame).

Painted in 1907, during one of Joaquín Sorolla’s periods of greatest international recognition as a portraitist, this canvas is a magnificent example of his work dedicated to high society. The subject, Teodolina de Alvear de Lezica, a member of a prominent Argentine family, is depicted with the elegance and distinction characteristic of early 20th-century society portraits.

Provenance: Teodolina de Alvear commissioned Sorolla through José Artal, Buenos
Aires; paid 7,500 pesetas; 1985 Carmen Bonel, on the open market, Madrid; Auction
Leiloes (Leira & Nascimento), Lisbon, November 9, 1988; Private collection.
Exhibitions: Valencia 1997, no. 31.

The portrait was painted from a photograph, although according to the subject’s granddaughter, this
painting and that of her husband Ricardo Lezica (BPS 2031) were painted in Paris.
The family notebook (MS DA / 460) records the sale in 1907.
The Sorolla Museum’s letter archive preserves, among other items, a letter (CS 141) from
Teodolina de Alvear dated in Paris on May 15, 1907, in which she informs him that, due to
an unexpected trip to Paris, she might be able to come to Madrid and see the portraits of herself and her
husband, which José de Artal had commissioned from him in 1906. Artal’s commissions to Sorolla
for these portraits appear in letters CS 371, CS 372, and CS 374.
In letters CS 142 and CS 143, she asks him in the first to confirm on which date in
June he could receive her, and in the second, dated “June 1907,” he asks her to send him
photographs because, if no retouching is needed, he will not travel to Madrid. But in the end, he did travel
to Madrid, as can be seen from letter CS 1031, and he retouched the portraits. In this letter, Teodolina de Alvear also confirms the completion of the portrait of José Prudencio Guerrico—for which she will send photographs—and for which his widow has agreed to pay 7,500 pesetas (BPS 2046)—and she also commissions him to paint a portrait of Francisco.

In this composition, Sorolla establishes striking hallmarks between the descriptive precision of the figure—where the luminosity of the skin tones, the fabrics, and the details of the dress stand out—and the technical freedom of the background, rendered with broad, vibrant brushstrokes that foreshadow the modernity of his pictorial language. The dialogue between the refinement of the portrait and the spontaneity of the brushwork reveals Sorolla’s two fundamental facets: the painter capable of meeting the demands of his patrons and the artist of extraordinary technical audacity. This portrait belongs to a culminating phase of his career, coinciding with his international exhibitions in Paris, London, and New York, which cemented his prestige as one of the great Spanish masters of his time

Joaquín Sorolla was one of the great masters of modern Spanish painting, internationally recognized for his extraordinary mastery of light, color, and the depiction of the fleeting moment. Trained in Valencia and Rome, he evolved from social and academic painting toward a style of his own marked by Mediterranean luminosity, a free brushstroke, and a deep sensitivity to everyday life. In the early 20th century, he achieved international fame with his beach scenes, landscapes, and, especially, his portraits of the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, and royalty, in which he combined the tradition of official portraiture with an increasingly modern and spontaneous technique. His exhibitions in Paris, London, and New York cemented his reputation, culminating in a major commission from the Hispanic Society of New York. Considered one of the leading figures of Spanish Luminism, his work is part of the collections of institutions such as the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Museo Sorolla in Madrid, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.