Sorolla at the National Gallery

Last week, the slates were stripped off our roof (preparing for a loft extension). This week has of course started with the very wettest of Cambridge days. Option (1): sit at home, fretting and listening out for more leaks through the tarpaulins (after an initial one last week was sorted). Option (2): go up to London for a long-planned concert. We sensibly if nervously went for option (2).

London outdoors was miserably wet too. But indoors at the National Gallery there was such sun and light and warmth at the exhibition Sorolla: Spanish Master or Light. Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923), prolific and once greatly popular, was quite new to us: and we enjoyed this exhibition hugely — there is something life-affirming here. As the Guardian review put it, “It is hardly possible to stand before these enormous canvases, thick with paint, without feeling at least something of their appeal, a combination of the obvious and comfortable relish in their making, and the irreducible beauty of sunlight itself.” The exhibition is on for another month: the next time you are in London on a wet  and cheerless day, see it!

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