A windblown girl looks out toward the viewer, shielding her eyes from the blinding sun with one hand while holding on to her younger sister with the other. Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was enchanted with the effects of light, absorbed and reflected here in the dramatic gradient of the blue water melding into wet sand. The broad and loose brushstrokes give the work a sketch-like appearance that suits the fleeting moment.
These techniques, along with his direct observation from nature, aligned Sorolla firmly with the Impressionists, with whom he exhibited in Paris. Working 30 years earlier, French Impressionist Pierre-August Renoir painted a similar theme in his Two Sisters (On the Terrace). In contrast to Renoir’s carefully posed models, Sorolla drew his inspiration from the spontaneity of real life: his sisters appear caught in a moment of play, their positions and gestures active and awkward.
Sorolla’s candid depictions of intimate, familial relationships earned him international success, particularly among American audiences, who experienced his works for the first time at an exhibition at the Hispanic Society in New York in 1909. While on vacation with his family in Valencia, Spain, that summer, Sorolla began creating works for a second American presentation, a process he believed would take five years but instead took only 18 months. Two Sisters was one of 30 works he produced during that fertile period along the Spanish coast and was among the 188 pieces featured in the artist’s second US exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1911.
The four-week-long show was a massive success, with around 40 of the works selling by the exhibition’s close, including Two Sisters, Valencia . Mrs. Elizabeth H. North purchased the painting and immediately donated it to the Art Institute in memory of her husband, William Stanley North.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Gift of Mrs. William Stanley North in memory of William Stanley North
Reference Number
1911.28
Extended information about this artwork
Doménech, Rafael, Sorolla: sa vie et son oeuvre, Bibliotheque d’Art Espanol 1 (Madrid : Léonce Miguel, 1910), pp. 84, fig. 111 (ill.), 85, fig. 113 (detail ill.), 86, fig. 113 (detail ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Sorolla’s Exhibition and Visit,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 4,4 (April 1911), pp. 60, 61 (ill.).
Williams, Leonard, Catalogue of Paintings by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida under the Management of the Hispanic Society of America, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1911), cat. 7.
Gil, Roldolfo, Joaquín Sorolla, Monografías de arte universal 7 (Madrid, Saenz de Jubera Hermanos, 1913), p. 53.
M.I.G.O., “Studio Talk: Chicago,” International Studio 49, 193-96 (March-June 1913), pp. 166, 167 (ill.).
Bryant, Lorinda Munson, What Pictures to See in America (New York : John Lane Company, 1915), p. 259, fig. 168 (ill.).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition, exh. cat. (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, 1915), cat. 285.
Art Institute of Chicago, First Exhibition of Work by the Alumni of the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1918), cat. 678.
Toledo Museum of Art, Contemporary Spanish Paintings, exh. cat. (Toledo, Ohio: Toledo Museum of Art, 1928).
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), p. 97 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of a Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), cat. 275.
Milwaukee Art Institute, Five Centuries of Spanish Art, exh. cat. (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Institute, 1952), cat. 46.
Society of the Four Arts, Spanish Painting, exh. cat. (Palm Beach, Fla.: Society of the Four Arts, 1952), cat. 42.
de Pantorba, Bernardino, La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla: estudio biográfico y crítico (Madrid: Editorial Mayfe, 1953), pp. 98 (ill.), 99, no. 1097, 166.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 420.
de Pantorba, Bernardino, La vida y la obra de Joaquín Sorolla: estudio biográfico y crítico, 2nd ed. (Madrid: Editorial Mayfe, 1970), p. 170, no. 1097.
Speyer, A. James, and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 70, no. 3G10.
Peel, Edmund, The Painter, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, exh. cat. (San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art; Valencia, Spain: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzáles, 1989), cat. 51 (color ill.).
Brown, J. Carter, Rings: Five Passions in World Art, exh. cat. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the High Museum, 1996), no cat. no., pp. 260, 261 (color ill.).
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Sorolla & Zuloaga: Dos Visiones Para Un Cambio de Siglo, exh. cat. (Bilbao: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1998), cat. 45 (color ill.).
Roglán, Mark, et. al., Prelude to Spanish Modernism: Fortuny to Picasso, exh. cat. (Albuquerque: Albuquerque Museum, 2005), pp. 25, 216, 217 (color pl. 45).
Sargent/Sorolla, (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza), p. 90 (ill.), cat. 22.
Pons-Sorolla, Blanca, et. al., Sorolla and America, exh. cat. (Dallas: Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University; San Diego: The San Diego Museum of Art, 2013), 155, 169 (color ill.), cat. 39.
Art Institute of Chicago, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, February 14-March 12, 1911, cat. 7.
Boston, Copley Society, February 20-March 28, 1912.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Inaugural Exhibition, January-February 1915, cat. 285.
Chicago, Art Institute, First Exhibition of Work by the Alumni of the Art Institute of Chicago, January 8-February 7, 1918, cat. 678.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, June 1919.
Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Art, Contemporary Spanish Paintings, February-April 1928.
Chicago, Art Institute, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-November 1, 1933, cat. 275.
Palm Beach, Fla., Society of the Four Arts, Spanish Painting, January 11-February 6, 1952, cat. 42.
Milwaukee Art Institute, Five Centuries of Spanish Art, September 5-October 25, 1952, cat. 46.
New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, The Painter, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, March 14-May 13, 1989, cat. 51 (color ill.); traveled to Saint Louis Art Museum, June 23-August 13, 1989; San Diego Museum of Art, September 16-October 28, 1989; Valencia, Spain, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, November 28, 1989-January 28, 1990.
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Rings: Five Passions in World Art, July 4-September 29, 1996, no cat. no., pp. 260, 261 (color ill.).
Bilbao, Spain, Museo de Bellas Artes, Sorolla & Zuloaga: Dos Visiones Para Un Cambio de Siglo, December 19, 1997-February 22, 1998, cat. 45; Madrid, Fundacion Cultural Mapfre Vida, April 7-July 15, 1998.
Albuquerque Museum, Fortuny to Picasso: Prelude to Spanish Modernism, August 21-November 27, 2005, pl. 45; Dallas, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, December 11, 2005-February 26, 2006.
Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Sargent/Sorolla, October 3, 2006–January 8, 2007, cat. 22; traveled to Paris, Musée de Petit Palais, 2007.
Dallas, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Sorolla and America, December 13, 2013-April 19, 2014, cat. 39 (ill.); San Diego Museum of Art, May 30-August 26, 2014; Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, September 23, 2014-January 11, 2015.
Art Institute of Chicago, John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age, June 27-Septembet 30, 2018.
Thomas Fortune Ryan, New York, 1909 [Chicago 1911]. Mrs. William S. (Elizabeth H.) North, Chicago, probably March 1911 [Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 1911]; given to the Art Institute, 1911.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
