Clotilde sentada en el sofá

The woman on the sofa is Clotilde García del Castillo, Sorolla's wife, and by 1910 he had been painting her for over 20 years. They married in 1888, and she stayed his favourite model through his whole career, along with their children. Here she is a lady of standing, in a pale gown and satin shoes, caught in the loose brilliant brushwork that had made Sorolla famous across Europe and America. He looks slightly down at her, and there is a reason. The picture was meant to hang in his own house in Madrid, seen from the landing at the top of the main staircase, so the high viewpoint matched the way visitors would actually come upon it. That house is now the museum that keeps the painting.