Marina. Veleros en el mar

Painted in Valencia in 1880, the present lot is one of three marine paintings entered by Sorolla in the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1881, together with Marina. Escena de puerto and Marina. Barcos en el puerto. It was the first time that Sorolla had entered a national competition, and the paintings did not adhere to the then very fashionable theme of historical subject matter, remaining relatively unnoticed as a result. According to one of his biographers, Aureliano de Beruete, after the failure of these paintings at the exhibition, they were presumed lost. Both Barcos en el puerto and the present lot have been illustrated in subsequent publications and have remained in private collections.