Miguel Blay y Fábregas

Miguel Blay y Fábregas, painted in 1918 and held at the Hispanic Society of America, depicts the Catalan sculptor known for his allegorical and decorative works — particularly the famous La Joventut (Youth), which won him the gold medal at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition and established his international reputation. Blay, like Mariano Benlliure and other sculptors in the Hispanic Society series, gave Sorolla the opportunity to portray a fellow visual artist — a man who shaped material into form as Sorolla shaped light into image. The 1918 date places the portrait near the end of Sorolla's actively productive career.

The portrait of a sculptor is handled with the attention to plastic form that Sorolla brought to his most carefully modelled faces. Blay's features are built up with tonal gradations that imply underlying bone structure — a sculptor's portrait in which the painter is thinking about solid form beneath skin. The characteristic warmth of Sorolla's flesh palette is present but the handling is more deliberate than in his rapid outdoor studies.