Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Impressionism
and Modern Art Joaquin Sorolla worked in a variety of genres---
landscapes, historical scenes, portraiture---but is perhaps best
known for his charming renditions of children playing on the
beach. Along with twelve other canvases, Sorolla painted The
Young Amphibians on a beach in Valencia during the summer of
1903. Unlike his compatriot Picasso, who was then working in the
mournful style of his Blue Period, Sorolla infused his pleasant
paintings with glistening reflective light, as seen here in the
gentle rolling waves of the Mediterranean Sea and the two nude
children playing at the water's edge. The Young Amphibians was
acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art just a year after its
making, in 1904, and represents the early but increasing
interest of American museums in acquiring the Valencian artist's
work (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, would add the
artist's 1906 Senora de Sorolla in Black to their collection
five years later). I