Fifth Avenue, Nueva York

Sorolla's 1911 depiction of Fifth Avenue represents a remarkable departure from his usual subjects — made during his extended stay in New York for the Hispanic Society exhibition and its aftermath. Having arrived in 1909 to tremendous acclaim, Sorolla returned to the United States and found himself fascinated and somewhat overwhelmed by the scale and energy of the American metropolis. Fifth Avenue in 1911 was in the process of transformation from a residential to a commercial boulevard, and Sorolla captured it during a moment of genuine urban spectacle: crowds in winter dress, horse-drawn vehicles and early automobiles, the vertical scale of new buildings rising above the street. The painting demonstrates Sorolla's adaptability — his sunlit Mediterranean language applied to a grey northern city — and his curiosity about a modernity that his Spanish subjects largely bypassed. It occupies a unique place in his oeuvre as evidence of his encounter with the New World and his ability to bring his visual approach to bear on utterly unfamiliar conditions.

Winter urban light — diffused, grey, occasionally broken by pale winter sun — required adjustments to Sorolla's palette, and the result is one of his most tonally interesting canvases. The compressed scale of the street view, with figures and vehicles creating a dense foreground, is handled with the same directness he brought to Mediterranean crowds.