The Sierra Nevada by Joaquín Sorolla. A new view from the Jardín de los Adarves

Abstract

The view of the Sierra Nevada has never been investigated before, not within the artistic discipline nor, more specifically, from within the high mountain landscape. This article examines these new ways of looking at these mountains and the importance painter Joaquín Sorolla has had in transforming this through his work. Before, the representations of images of these mountains were recognized as a background to the city through the romantic gaze. Sorolla transformed this way of looking at and painting these mountains, from the Jardín de los Adarves, and turned it into a new way of understanding the mountain landscape, giving way to a new geographical and artistic concept closer to the models of avant-garde art, as did Cézanne with the mountain of Sainte-Victoire. This article includes a personal and practical analysis through plein air studies, thus establishing a new observation, in relation to previous studies and descriptions, of the way this painter was looking at the Sierra Nevada.