PHOTOGRAPHY
Portrait of Franzen the photographer
As an artist myself, I am fascinated by the techniques that Sorolla employed and have loved looking at his palette, paints and brushes in the Museo Sorolla.
One of the questions that often goes through my mind is whether Sorolla used reference photos as an aide to his studio paintings (which is what I do).
Sorolla was certainly no luddite when it came to photography - in his teens he worked as an assistant in the photographic studio of Antonio García Peris, whose daughter Sorolla would later marry.
Clotilde seemingly holding a camera in this painting from a Biarritz series
In my researches I was particularly interested in an article posted to the “taotothethruth” blog (http://taotothetruth.blogspot.fr/2011_01_01_archive.html), from which I have taken the following quotes showing that the debate started a long time ago -
'It has been said that Sorolla made free use of photographs in his canvases depicting action. Although he showed me many snapshots of beach scenes, I never saw him use them while painting.” Gordon Stevenson (student of Sorolla)
'Sorolla's works are mere chromolithographs, his paintings of children racing on the beach are but copies of instantaneous photographs' ~ New York Evening Post of 12 June 1909
“It has often been assumed that Sorolla's success in capturing light and movement was aided by referring to photographs, as Sargent is said to have reported.” (see- The World, 14 Feb. 1926)
'I have always remembered with amusement what happened when I went with Boldini to the Sorolla exhibition at the Georges Petit Gallery in Paris. As we progressed from picture to picture Boldini seemed suddenly to get into the grip of some hidden excitement and for a time hesitated about telling me just what was the matter. At last he could stand it no longer. "This man must work with a camera", he said. "They look like so many snapshots." Royal Cortissoz in Scribner's (May 1926)
And this photo on the above blog and the comparison with The Tuna Catch certainly made me think -
Ayamonte, The Tuna Catch, 1919