Sorolla Museum Madrid

With its Moorish gardens and trickling fountains, the atmosphere at the recently refurbished Museo Sorolla is in total contrast to the formality and grandeur of Madrid's major museums. Born in Valencia, Sorolla worked in Paris and Rome before becoming the darling of European and American high society. Often labeled 'the Spanish Impressionist', Sorolla had no connection with that movement. Passionate about Spain and the Spanish, his treatment of sharp light and heavy shade was both individual and highly accomplished. While he lived in Madrid his large paintings, with their bold and lively brushwork of people in sun dappled landscapes, were in great demand. In the first room you see the romantic side of Sorolla. Don't miss Madre  a simple scene of a tired mother and her newborn. Then walk through the second room with its jolly beach scenes to Sorolla's studio. Here the soaring walls are covered in canvases, including several of his wife, Clotilde.

Sorolla's finest work is upstairs. His studies for a series for the Hispanic Society of New York include rustic types in colorful regional costume, a bagpiper and a Don Quixote lookalike from La Mancha, complete with donkey and windmills and a large painting of four women taking a siesta. In galleries on the ground floor (enter from the garden) is Sorolla's fine collection of antique Spanish pottery, as well as some lively sketches of Central Park, New York.