"Votre oeuvre si originale et si puissante...". Vittorio Pica writes to Joaquín Sorolla

Abstract

This article presents a new appraisal of the work of the Italian art critic Vittorio Pica (1862-1930), an admirer of modern Spanish painting, and especially of Joaqu´ın Sorolla. Our starting point is the recently discovered collection of letters from Pica to Sorolla dated between 1901 and 1914. Taking a broad view of Pica’s studies of the artistic avant-garde of the late nineteenth century, the article also traces Sorolla’s fortunes in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth: his participation in the first International Art Exhibition of Venice, the acquisition of his painting Cociendo la vela by the Ca’ Pesaro Modern Art Gallery, and his presence at the International Art Exhibition of Rome in 1911.