National Gallery Acquires Sorolla
June 12 2020
Picture: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It has been announced this week that the National Gallery in London has acquired Joaquín Sorolla's work The Drunkard, Zarauz (El Borracho, Zarauz). The painting, dated to 1910, is the first Sorolla acquired by the gallery and had featured in its 2019 exhibition Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light.
Further reports have highlighted that the picture was acquired from dealer Danny Katz. It was purchased for £325,000 with a legacy from architect David Medd (d.2009). Notably, in 2010 Katz had given the National Gallery a painting by the nineteenth century Norwegian artist Peder Balke.
Might the acquisition be further evidence that the gallery is loosening its interpretation of being the 'national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th centuries’?
Having said all of this, the painting's spirit, subject matter and quality does seem to allow it to fit quite neatly into the gallery's existing collections.
