Los guitarristas, costumbres valencianas

Painted in 1889 when Sorolla was twenty-six and recently returned from his Rome scholarship years, 'Los guitarristas, costumbres valencianas' represents his early engagement with Valencian folk custom. Guitar playing was central to Spanish popular culture — from the jota of Valencia and Aragon to the flamenco of Andalusia — and musicians in regional dress were a recognisable subject within the tradition of costumbrismo, the painting of local customs. Sorolla's early works still bear traces of his training and his study of old masters in Italy, and a composition of seated musicians in traditional costume sits close to the academic genre painting he had mastered in his student years. The title's addition of 'costumbres valencianas' — Valencian customs — underlines the documentary aspect of the subject, framing it as an act of regional cultural preservation. These early costume pieces preceded the full flowering of his luminism and show Sorolla still working within more conventional tonal frameworks before his encounter with French Impressionism transformed his palette.

The 1889 date places this work before Sorolla's definitive assimilation of Impressionist colour, and the tonal organisation of figures in regional costume against a darker ground reflects academic training rather than the high-key palette he would develop. Guitar and costume details receive careful descriptive attention appropriate to a costumbrismo genre piece.