Resting Bacchante

Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla painted this Impressionist nude in 1887, during his final years studying in Italy. A young woman, identified as a bacchante (follower of Bacchus), reclines on a couch, her face turned partially toward the viewer. The work shows Sorolla developing the light-filled style that would later bring him fame.

Sorolla had enrolled at Valencia's San Carlos Academy in 1878 and traveled to Madrid to study Velázquez. A scholarship brought him to Rome, where he painted this study. The following year he would return to Valencia, marry, and begin his rise to international recognition. The oil on canvas measures 67 x 29 cm. It hangs at the Museu de Belles Arts de València, preserving Sorolla's connection to his native city.