The Palau Martorell presents one of the largest exhibitions dedicated to Joaquín Sorolla in Barcelona, which can be visited from December 5 to April 6, 2026, and brings together 86 masterpieces by the Valencian painter.
In Sorolla's Sea with Manuel Vicent," produced in collaboration with the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Museum Foundation, offers a unique exhibition approach in which Valencian writer Manuel Vicent curates a literary exhibition based on the work of Joaquín Sorolla, giving rise to an unusual dialogue between painting and literature.
Visitors will be able to enjoy such iconic works as Bathing Time, Valencia, The Little Sailboat, The Arrival of the Boats, Valencia, and Fisherwoman with her Son, Valencia.
Barcelona, December 4th, 2025. – Palau Martorell invites visitors to immerse themselves in Joaquín Sorolla’s work through the eyes of Manuel Vicent, with an exhibition whose narrative is both poetic and visual. The exhibition proposes the existence of an aesthetic and moral attitude toward the sea—an attitude that, to a certain extent, both artists, Sorolla and Vicent, share.
Manuel Vicent constructs, through a carefully curated selection of paintings from the Sorolla Museum collection, a visual journey into the representation of the sea and its scenes in Sorolla’s work. At the same time, drawing upon these paintings, the writer weaves a narrative—biographical, literary, and aesthetic—about Sorolla’s painting, about the Mediterranean, its people, and about himself and his relationship with the sea.
Vicent is described by critics as “the Sorolla of our literature.” His writing is characterized by a virtuosic, sharp style, full of beauty and realism. He practices a luminous, sensual prose, rich in nuance, portraying the world through sensory experience. As with Sorolla, it is difficult to understand the scope of his literary work without the Mediterranean and the Levant, without their people and landscapes, as the context in which it develops. For both creators, their Mediterranean roots are a key reference of their artistic identity.
Jose Fèlix Bentz, CEO and Co-founder of Palau Martorell, states: “Joaquín Sorolla, the distinguished painter who—like few others—was able to capture the subtleties of Mediterranean light, preserving its intensity and exalting its energy, returns for the second time to Palau Martorell. With ‘In Sorolla’s Sea with Manuel Vicent,’ Palau Martorell reaffirms its vocation as a versatile and open space, conceived to complement Barcelona’s rich cultural fabric and to become a true artistic engine. It is a firm commitment to enriching the city’s cultural offerings through exhibitions dedicated to great creators who have shaped the history of art.”
Meanwhile, Enrique Varela Agüí, director of the Sorolla Museum, highlights: “It is in the Mediterranean where the two artists—painter and writer—meet, united by a naturalistic gaze, radiant and almost blinding. There we find Sorolla with his most moving beach scenes, his most overwhelming fishing scenes, and his most dazzling visions of the sea. And there we find Vicent with his literature, his memories, his experiences, and his reflections on the sea, its people, and its settings. Sorolla’s sea becomes a space of literary creation for Vicent.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring the complete literary text that Manuel Vicent has created for the exhibition, turning the volume into an original work by the writer, accompanied by images of Joaquín Sorolla’s paintings.
“In Sorolla’s Sea with Manuel Vicent” comprises a selection of 86 works that the writer has divided into four thematic sections: “The Subconscious Is Full of Seaweed,” “A Naturalist Drama Under the Mediterranean Light,” “Bourgeois Holidaymakers in El Cabanyal,” and “In the Sea of Xàbia.”