Lot 335

JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (Valencia, 1863 - Cercedilla, 1923)
"Portrait of Enrique María Repullés y Vargas"
Oil on canvas
Signed, Dated in 1911 and dedicated
102 x 80 cm
80.000 - 100.000 €

We would like to thank Ms. Blanca Pons-Sorolla for her assistance in the cataloguing of this work, that will be included in the artist's catalogue (Volum III).

Inscription: “A mi amigo / Repullés / J. Sorolla / 1911” (top right corner) signed with rubric
On the back, on the frame: On the frame: “January 1911” in pencil, “124 (inside a circle) Bx 32-4”, crossed out, all in blue pencil (shipping numbering to the exhibitions in Chicago and St. Louis, USA, in 1911).

Inventories: Pantorba 2061; BPS 2084

Provenance:
1910 gift from Sorolla to Enrique María Repullés y Vargas;
His son Mariano Repullés, Madrid;
Thence by descent to the present owners

Exhibitions: Chicago 1911, no. 125 Excelentísimo Señor Don Enrique Repullés; Saint Louis 1911, no. 124.

Bibliography: Bernardino de Pantorba, “La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla. Estudio biográfico y crítica”, Madrid, 1953 and reissued in 1970, catalogue no. 2061.

The architect Enrique María Repullés y Vargas built, within a very short time, two important studio-residences for two of his great friends: first for the sculptor Mariano Benlliure, and, on his advice, for the painter Joaquín Sorolla, the current Sorolla House-Museum.
The Sorolla Museum preserves correspondence between Sorolla and Repullés, which allows us to learn about the architect's initial proposals and the painter's intervention with important changes. Peppino Benlliure Ortiz, Mariano's nephew and son of José Benlliure Gil, who had training in architecture, also acted as an intermediary during the periods when Sorolla was away.
In the photographic archive of The Hispanic Society of America there is a black and white photograph (HSA 3872) of a alleged study for the Portrait of the Architect Enrique María Repullés without any further details. Perhaps it could be a photograph of a first session of the final work, due to its similarity to the final painting.

Blanca Pons-Sorolla