Around Segovia

Around Segovia is a relatively simple painting from Spanish Impressionist, Joaquin Sorolla. The city itself lies on the outskirts of Madrid and features plenty of features that would excite many an artist.

We do not have a precise date for this painting but an educated guess would be of around 1906 as the artist is known to have produced a number of paintings of Segovia in that year and the style and colour palette used in them is relatively similar, making it likely this this work came about in that same year. Segovia itself sits in the highlands of Castille and offers an extraordinary landscape, combined with some stunning and historical architecture. It remains today a much appreciated tourist destination and great efforts have been made to preserve its traditional features. We do know that Sorolla visited this city several times, including as preparation for one of his works as part of the Vision of Spain series, which remains perhaps his finest artistic achievement. Additionally, some recent visitors to Segovia have argued that most of Sorolla's depictions of it are still pretty accurate around a century later, underlining how little this beautiful part of Spain has changed in the last century.

Within the painting in front of us are perhaps the ruins of a former castle or fortified building, as much of this type of architecture can be found elsewhere in this city. Some lower level brickwork appears in rows along a hill side, whilst in the background we see some darkly toned trees which block out most of the top of the painting. Behind is a bright sky, which shows through to cover the hill top in front of us. The contrasts in tone are therefore quite abrupt within this painting. The artwork feels unusual in the oeuvre of Sorolla, but actually there were several other similar pieces that he produced within the city and it was almost as if he wanted to document the whole area through art, just like we today might take a whole series of photographs as we travelled around the area.

Sorolla was passionate about his native Valencia but also grew to love many other parts of this beautiful country, and his oeuvre is testament to that. This period that he spent in Segovia produced some interesting artworks that are often overlooked in favour of his more famous portraits and beach scenes, but there is still much to learn here about the various qualities that he had as an artist. His museum in Madrid continues to expand our knowledge of his life and he sensibly held back many paintings from private sale in order to gift them to this institution which continues to keep his legacy strong today.