Sorollas lost and found hat and Paris Plages

First please take a look at French marché queen, Marjorie William's story on Paris Breakfast. Check out Paris Plage for beachy details. And def play DJ Teddy J's essential background beach music while you're reading.

I couldn't help noticing how Sorolla loved his summer straw hats.

He mostly lived and painted in Valencia, 30 minutes from the beach.

He uses hats (mostly straw FYI) to focus on his subject's face by losing the edges like here. Try squinting and the hat disappears. Other times he contrasts the hat's edges(known as 'found' edges in painter's 🎨 lingo).

I tried my hand at it after a sunny visit to Paris Plages along the Seine yesterday. I need to do a few hundred more before I get even close. Fortunately I've got August to work on them.

You had to squint it was so bright yesterday yet the temperatures were perfect, in the 80s.

A whole variety of seating arrangements and sun umbrellas

These girls were in a book-lending area provided by publisher Flammarion, except they were reading email..

Free sparkling and flat water provided. BYO bottles svp.

In a Sorolla sketch beach people were well-covered up.

Unlike Parisians yesterday

Sorolla in this photo is wearing a lost-and-found straw hat

Another 'lost' hat makes the red dress 'pop'. Squint and you'll see it.

If only one could take a dip. They say by 2020 the Seine will be cleaned-up enough. Hmm..🙄

Of couse one must have thes obligatory ice cream mustn't one, here provided by Pozzetto.
Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast!
If you like this post please support it by buying my Paris letters and watercolors. 

Or pass on to someone you think might enjoy it.

Sorolla and the Paris years - Musee l'Impressionnismes Giverny

Last Wednesday I attended a press preview of Sorolla and the Paris years at Musee des l'Impressionnismes, Giverny. Its an absolute joy to behold. Something we all need a bit of now.

Pure light and beauty

Do  you know Joquin Sorolla's works? A masterful painter, often called the Spanish 'impressionist'. A quote from La Prensa, Buenos Aires 1923,"Sorolla's brush was a beam of solar threads that left no opaque matter on the canvas, but only pure radiations. Sorolla painted the unpaintable."

Large format paintings take up entire walls.

An exhibit of 100 paintings, many from Madrid, 4 coming from Cuba.

Sorolla (1863-1923) was a contemporary and friend of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). 

Their subject matter were similar as was their virtuosic brushwork.

As a student Sorolla copied at least 15 works by Velazquez in Madrid. His work was a constant source of inspiration throughout his life.

His blacks

And his whites have incredible depth

Take time to look at the small details painted with such bravura.

"With all its excesses, the modern impressionistic movement has given us one discovery, the color violet. It is the only discovery of importance in the art world since Velazquez." 

Its recorded Sorolla painted quickly and directly from his subject, often completing large, complex paintings in just 4 days.

"I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly. Every effect is so transient, it must be rapidly painted.”

"As far as outdoor work is concerned, a studio is only a garage; a place in which to store pictures and repair them, never a place in which to paint them."

His home and atelier in Madrid is now a museum. I'd love to visit.

A room entirely devoted to Sorolla's small oil sketches, 50 of them.

Painted on card or wood as possible reference for future works

A Paris view painted during his student days as a struggling young artist

If you're coming to Paris do go see the Sorolla and the Paris years exhibit in Giverny, just a 45 minute train ride from Gare St. Lazare. Rizolli has translated the beautifully illustrated catalog if you can't make it.

I couldn't resist making watercolor sketches from his sketches. So much to learn.

By the way Paris Breakfasts is competing for the Best in Paris Expat blogs. Please vote for Bear! (you may need to scroll a bit).

Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast! 

If you like this post please support it by buying my Paris letters and watercolors. Or pass on someone you think might enjoy it.