Boat in the Albufera of Valencia

The Albufera is the large coastal lagoon south of Valencia, a shallow freshwater lake separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land, whose calm waters and distinctive flat-bottomed boats (barques) provided Sorolla with a subject quite different from the open Mediterranean. The stillness of the Albufera — its mirror-like reflections, the rice fields surrounding it, the low light that characterizes a lagoon landscape — demanded a fundamentally different palette and handling from his coastal beach work. This 1895 canvas, held at the Sorolla Museum, is one of the earliest significant treatments of the Albufera subject in his work, preceding the more famous later series. The lagoon's visual character — horizontal, quiet, reflective — suited Sorolla's gifts for capturing the behavior of light on water, but in a register of calm rather than the kinetic energy of the surf.

The Albufera's still water creates complete, undistorted reflections — technically demanding because the reflected image must be painted with equal conviction as the original. Sorolla works with a cooler, greener palette than his open-sea canvases, reflecting the lagoon's brackish green water and the surrounding vegetation. Horizontal brushwork reinforces the flat, calm character of the setting.