Running Along the Beach

Many of Sorolla's paintings capture charming scenes from the 19th century, with this one being probably produced on a Valencian beach, which was a common source of inspiration for the artist.

Within this scene we find a boy chasing two girls across the beach, with several more children playing in the sea behind. Sorolla loved to produce scenes of childhood innocence and also found many different social situations by studying the lives of ordinary Valencians going about their lives besides the seaside. He would come across many working fishermen, as well as the women who would provide them with support from the shore. There was also the opportunity to leisure time for a lucky section of society who could journey out on small yachts. Sorolla was proud of his roots and wherever he travelled to he would always remember his fondness for this region, forcing him to return many times and put together series of work when doing so. The beauty of his work could never have achieved such a level without the inspiration provided by his native Valencia, and in particular the bright light which saturates this region every summer.

One of the key elements of French Impressionism was in studying the impact of light on different objects and Spanish painter Sorolla was certainly highly skilled in this artistic aspect as well. He drew admiration from several French members of that group, and his style is generally regarded as more Impressionist than anything else. It was a style that carried across Europe over time and eventually into the US as well. To see a Sorolla painting in person reveals the incredible subtlety that he inserted into each and every painting, and this is something that can often be lost with digital pictures of his work, however large they might be. The artist also liked to capture movement as well, just as seen within this painting, and that would provide even greater complexity to his work which provided that sort of challenge that he thrived for. He would also take this style onto huge canvases at one point in his career which allowed him to dig down into an extraordinary level of visual information which can be enjoyed from afar, but also up close when looking at a small section of each artwork.

This painting can be found in the permanent collection of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias in Oviedo, Spain. It is a relatively small venue, but has plans to expand in order to allow it to display more of its impressive collection at the same time. Besides Running Along the Beach, there are also a number of other significant Spanish, Flemish and Italian artists featured here. Rubens, Goya and Titian are some of the masters to be found here and a number of more contemporary names are also featured here as well. The entry for this painting on the venue's website, which is available in multiple languages, provides most of the information that we could find on it, as Running on the Beach is not documented as well as many other paintings from his extensive career. Indeed, in many cases it is simply that there have not been translations from the original Spanishinto English, though over time more and more becomes available to an international audience.