The Young Counts of Lérida

The Young Counts of Lérida from 1902, at the Hispanic Society of America, depicts two aristocratic children — members of a noble family from the ancient Catalan city of Lérida — in the formal portrait tradition that Sorolla served alongside his more personal beach and garden subjects. The portrait of noble children had a long tradition in Spanish art, from Velázquez's portraits of the Infanta Margarita to Goya's studies of royal children, and Sorolla was fully aware of placing himself within that lineage. The Hispanic Society's acquisition of this work contributed to its documentation of contemporary Spanish upper-class life.

The two children are posed with a formality appropriate to their social status, though Sorolla's handling of their faces and clothing is characteristically rapid and luminous. The white of their formal dress gives him the opportunity for the kind of pure light effects he excelled at.