Study of a Seated Boy

Download2844 × 4000 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Joaquín Sorolla (Spanish, 1863–1923)
Medium: Pen and black and gray inks
Size: 32.2 × 22.6 cm (12 11/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Culture: Spanish
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Feet hovering just above the floor, a young boy on the cusp of adolescence sits in an armless chair, his left arm holding the edge of his seat. Seen from a three-quarter view, the boy gazes far ahead, a look of melancholy or boredom resting across his face. Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida only articulated the portions of the chair that hold the boy’s slender frame. Drawn with overlapping short hatching marks in many directions, Sorolla provides a tenderness to this unidentified figure.

This study—drawn on a large sketchbook page—does not seem to be linked to any particular painting, and was likely created as a studio exercise based on the pose of the sitter and the controlled movement of the strokes. Similar young children, however, do populate his painted images often, most notably his beach scenes. The lower right side contains a dedication to Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora, to whom he writes, “to my darling friend, Pedro Gil.” Sorolla and Gil met in Rome in 1885, and, according to Sorolla’s grandson, they remained friends throughout the rest of their lives.

Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.