Il bagno, Jávea

In the summer of 1905, Sorolla was working on the Mediterranean coast at Jávea, south of Valencia where he was born. He painted almost entirely outdoors, chasing one thing above all, which was sunlight on moving water. Here bathers wade and splash in the shallows while the sea throws the light back in a dozen colours at once, foaming against the wet rocks. He built it up with fast, loaded strokes so the surf seems to keep moving. A few years later, in 1909, he showed pictures like this in New York and the crowds were enormous. A reviewer there called him a great modern master, and it was this sunstruck water people came to see.