Clotilde seated on the Sofa

Of all the portraits Sorolla painted of his wife, this is probably the most successful and is a fundamental work within the context of his artistic production.The viewer is presented here with a refined lady, reflecting her social status and so mirroring her husband’s professional success. Clotilde is dressed in an exquisite white gown and delicate satin shoes.Although in Spanish painting of the time there are many examples of sophisticated portraits, here in this most elegant of his portraits Sorolla certainly had in mind the high society portraits of John Singer Sargent, well-known to him: portraits in which the sitters in their elegant formal clothes often seem not be posing, but simply to be there. The portrait of Clotilde playing this same double game seems however to be free of any affectation and the result is completely natural, as she conveys serene contentment