Javea Grapevine 186 2016 Five | Page 38

Joaquin Sorolla was very clear from day one that Xàbia was “the best thing I know to paint”.  It was 1896 and he then was 33 years old and for him this town “exceeds all” that he had seen so far.  In the same letter he confessed to his wife, Clotilde, that it “is the place I dreamed of, sea and mountains, but what a sea” . This infatuation produced dozens of paintings that announced Xàbia the world and are part of the history of art.  Joaquin Sorolla With thanks to Xabia Tourisme and http://blog. xabia.org/pintaria-sorolla-volviese-ahora-xabia/ Duane del Mar, Portixol Bay, Cape San Antonio ... Sorolla painted many landscapes that we still know and love today, in his paintings. So what are these landscapes like today? What has changed more than 100 years later?  Do they keep their essence? To find out the Tourist Office selected a series of pictures and returned to places where the painter set up the easel and developed all his art.  “Cap Martí Island” (1905)