A NATURALIST DRAMA UNDER THE
MEDITERRANEAN LIGHT

“Just as tragedy nests beneath happiness, at the bottom of a blinding white light there is a black light that blinds you and forces you to narrow your eyes. This aesthetic dialectic between opposites has accompanied me throughout my life and, when needed, has helped me penetrate the deeper meaning contained in that struggle against the sea depicted in Sorolla’s luminous painting”.

Manuel Vicent

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The radiant Sorolla, with the Mediterranean as a setting for happiness, gives way to the second section, in which Vicent shows us the harsh life of fishermen—men and women, boys and girls—working on the beach of El Cabanyal. Here, where the sea is effort rather than pleasure, we encounter such iconic works as The Sails, The Arrival of the Boats, Valencia, Mending the Sail, Valencia, Ropemakers, Valencia, and Fisherwoman with Her Son, Valencia.