Timeline of
Joaquín Sorolla

  • Event

    • Self-Portrait, 1857–1858

    1863 - Sorolla is born on February 27 in Valencia, the son of Joaquín Sorolla Gascón and María Concepción Bastida Prat.

  • On December 4, Sorolla's only sister, Concha Sorolla, is born.

  • Sorolla begins studying drawing at the Escuela de Artesanos in Valencia.

  • Sorolla is enrolled in the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Carlos to study painting.

  • Sorolla receives a silver medal for his work Moor Awaiting His Opportunity for Revenge.

  • Sorolla earns a gold medal at the Regional Exhibition of Valencia for his work Nun in Prayer.

  • Sorolla receives another gold medal for his work The Second of May. With his work The Cry of the Palleter, Sorolla wins a scholarship from the Provincial Council of Valencia to go to Rome.

  • Sorolla travels to Rome, where he will remain until 1889.

  • Event

  • On September 8, Sorolla marries Clotilde García del Castillo, the daughter of his patron, photographer Antonio García Peris. Sorolla moves to the city of Assisi in Italy.

  • Sorolla completes his scholarship in Rome and returns to Spain, settling in Madrid. In that year, his daughter María is born. His son Joaquín is born in 1892. In 1895, his daughter Elena.

  • Sorolla receives the Medal of Honor from the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Sorolla's period of light begins. He continues experimenting in his quest to capture light. Sorolla paints portraits that produce large revenues.

    • Self-Portrait, 1857–1858

  • Sorolla has an exhibition in the Gallerie Georges Petit in Paris. The following year, the exhibition moves to Germany, and then to London in 1908.

  • Sorolla brings an exhibit to New York, Buffalo, and Boston. Thanks to the involvement of Archer Milton Huntington, whom he had met in London, Sorolla signs a contract with The Hispanic Society of America, through which he commits to painting murals representing the different provinces of Spain. It would be a monumental work. Sorolla completes this work between 1912 and 1919, traveling throughout Spain to gather information about the country.

  • Sorolla suffers a stroke, which leaves him paralyzed on his left side.

  • Sorolla dies on August 10 in Cercedilla, Madrid.