Sorolla was a precocious draftsman, who, at the age of fifteen, enrolled in the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia, Spain. Later, after studying in Rome and Paris, he settled in Valencia, where he developed the high-keyed painterly style for which he is famous. This style resulted from a variety of influences, including Impressionism and the work of Adolph Menzel (1815–1905) and Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884). The seacoast town of Jávea, south of Valencia, provided Sorolla with the subjects for many of his paintings. Some of the most popular were scenes of children swimming. By the early years of the twentieth century, Sorolla had achieved an international reputation.

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): J Sorolla Bastida / 1905.

the artist, Madrid (1905–09; sold at Hispanic Society Exhibition to MMA)

Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "Exposition Sorolla y Bastida," June 12–July 10, 1906, no. 42 (as "Le bain. Javer," possibly this picture).

Berlin. Schulte Galleries. February 3–March 1, 1907, no catalogue? [see Ref. Santa-Ana Álvarez-Ossorio and Barrabés 1995].

Düsseldorf. Schulte Galleries. April 1907, no catalogue? [see Ref. Santa-Ana Álvarez-Ossorio and Barrabés 1995].

Cologne. Schulte Galleries. May 1907, no catalogue? [see Ref. Santa-Ana Álvarez-Ossorio and Barrabés 1995].

London. Grafton Galleries. "Exhibition of Paintings by Señor Sorolla y Bastida," May–July 1908, no. 122 (as "Sea-Nymphs").

New York. Hispanic Society of America. "Catalogue of Paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida," February 8–March 8, 1909, no. 98 (as "El baño, Jávea").

Buffalo. Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. "Catalogue of Paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida," March 20–April 10, 1909, no. 66 [see Ref. Santa- Ana Álvarez-Ossorio and Barrabés 1995].

Copley Hall, Copley Society of Boston. "Catalogue of Paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida," April 20–May 11, 1909, no. ? [see Ref. Santa-Ana Álvarez-Ossorio and Barrabés 1995].

Winter Park, Fla. Morse Gallery of Art. "Spanish Art of Six Centuries," January 12–31, 1946, no. 17.

Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "Spanish Painting," January 11–February 6, 1952, no. 41.

Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "Spanish Painting, XVII–XX Centuries," January 4–27, 1963, no catalogue?

Phoenix Art Museum. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Collection: 'The River and the Sea'," February 15, 1967–February 15, 1968, no. 17.

St. Petersburg. Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Fla.. "Spanish 19th Century Painters," January 15–?March 31, 1973, no catalogue?

Liège. Salle Saint Georges. "Sorolla/Solana," October 15–December 1, 1985, no. 17 (as "Niñas tomando el baño [Fillettes au bain]").

Madrid. Fundación Cultural MAPFRE Vida. "Joquín Sorolla (1863–1923)," November 23, 1995–January 28, 1996, unnumbered cat. (p. 92).

Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. "Sorolla y Zuloaga: Dos Visiones para un Cambio de Siglo," December 19, 1997–February 22, 1998, no. 34.

Madrid. Fundación Cultural MAPFRE Vida. "Sorolla, Zuloaga: Dos Visiones para un Cambio de Siglo," April 8–June 28, 1998, no. 22.

Exhibition of Paintings by Señor Sorolla y Bastida. Exh. cat., Grafton Galleries. London, 1908, pp. 39, 55, no. 122, ill.

B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Principal Accessions." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (April 1909), pp. 69–70.

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Letters to Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora. February 11 and 19, 1909 [published in Ref. Tomás 2007, pp. 272–73, nos. 316–17], relates that this painting has been sold to the MMA along with two others.

"Spain's Great Painter: Exhibition of Pictures by Sorolla y Bastida." The Evening Post (February 5, 1909) [reprinted in "Eight Essays on Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida," vol. 2, New York, 1909, p. 172].

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 306, ill., notes that Jávea, a small village in the province of Alicante, Spain, is the site of many of Sorolla's pictures of bathers.

Florencio de Santa-Ana Álvarez-Ossorio and Noeli Isábal Barrabés in Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923). Exh. cat., Fundación Cultural MAPFRE Vida. Madrid, 1995, pp. 92–93, ill. (color), note that it was executed in the summer of 1905; comment that the figure of the nude girl is unusual in Sorolla's works.

"Correspondencia con Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora." Epistolarios de Joaquín Sorolla. 1, Barcelona, 2007, p. 208 n. 322, pp. 272–73, nos. 200, 316–17.

Javier Barón in Joaquín Sorolla, 1863–1923. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2009, p. 463.

Marcus B. Burke in Joaquín Sorolla, 1863–1923. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2009, pp. 388, 390 n. 3.

José Luis Díez in Joaquín Sorolla, 1863–1923. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2009, p. 354.

José Luis Díez and Javier Barón in Joaquín Sorolla, 1863–1923. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2009, pp. 34, 72, 132 n. 123, p. 136 n. 403, fig. 38 (color), call "Bathing in Jávea" of 1905 (formerly José Gómez Mena collection, Havana) a pendant to this picture.

Jávea, a small village on the Spanish coast, in the province of Alicante, lies between two promontories. Many of Sorolla's pictures of bathers were painted there.