Sketch (Garden)

Sketch (Garden), painted in 1909 and now at the Hispanic Society of America, was produced during Sorolla's extended visit to New York for his triumphant exhibition at the Hispanic Society — a show of 356 works that drew over 160,000 visitors in five weeks and established his international fame. During his time in New York, Sorolla also painted a series of garden sketches in the grounds of the Hispanic Society's building in Audubon Terrace, capturing the manicured American garden setting that was entirely unlike his usual Mediterranean subjects. These garden sketches are among his most spontaneous and freely handled works, made without the pressure of the large commissions and with the pure pleasure of rapid notation. The 1909 American garden sketches represent a fascinating parenthesis in a career defined by Spanish light and landscape.

The sketch format gives Sorolla maximum freedom: the brush moves quickly, notation replaces description, and the garden's spatial structure is suggested through the most economical means. Dappled garden light — filtered through ornamental trees and hedges — is captured with broken brushwork in which individual strokes remain legible rather than blending into smooth surface. The handling is among his most openly impressionistic.