Joaquín Sorolla

Joaquin Sorolla painted sunlight better than almost anyone, and he did it out of doors, fast, on the beaches of his native Valencia. Children wade in the shallows, oxen haul boats through the surf, white shirts and wet skin flash under a Mediterranean glare so strong you almost squint. He worked at speed to catch the exact hour, sometimes strapping his canvases down against the sea wind.

Fame came early and travelled. His 1909 show in New York was a sensation, and it brought him the commission that would define and finally break him. The American millionaire Archer Huntington asked him to fill the hall of the Hispanic Society with painted panels showing the regions of Spain.

For eight years, from 1911, Sorolla travelled the country painting these 14 huge canvases of costumes, markets, and festivals, an exhausting labour far from the light-filled beaches he loved. In 1920, back home and painting a portrait in his garden, he suffered a stroke and never really worked again. He died three years later, at 60, the great Spanish murals hanging in New York where they still fill their room.