The museum is housed in Joaquín Sorolla's old family home in the centre of Madrid. The house and gardens were designed by Sorolla himself and he brought back many plants, statues and other items from his painting trips around Spain.
The tiles around the fountains and staircases are all originals bought by Sorolla over a hundred years ago.
Here's a statue of Sorolla himself:
Inside the Andalucian theme continues with El Patio Andaluz:
Sorolla's huge ceramics collection is kept in the areas around the patio (I was lucky in that my parents were able to come and visit for my last week so I could show them around!).
Sorolla's paintings are hung all around the walls of his old studio. The museum has tried to preserve it exactly as he was when he and his family lived in the house; even his brushes and pots are still in place!
This painting was Sorolla's last; he was working on it when he died in 1923:
His paintings are full of colour, movement and sunshine. He enjoyed painting beach scenes and the gardens of his house in Madrid. He especially loved painting his family; his wife Clotilde and three children, Joaquín, María and Elena.
Above is my favourite portrait of Clotilde in the museum. The rest of the house is also pretty luxurious with a Tiffany chandelier in the living room and beautiful painted frieze in the dining room.
I wasn't actually based in the museum itself but in the museum offices which are just around the corner in a separate building. Here is a photo I took of my desk when I first arrived (though this changed many times while I was there) and also a quick snap of the library where we all worked:
My Spanish has definitely improved over my 6 months in Spain; thinking back to October it's amazing how I survived! At first I was the only intern or becaria at the museum but I've made a couple of lovely friends among the few others that arrived after Christmas. Now I'm looking forward to trying something new and after a week's holiday in Andalucía I'll be starting a new placement in Casa del Libro (the huge bookshop on Gran Vía). Check out my earlier blog post to see some photos of the shop: Bookshops in Madrid.
If anyone has any questions about what it's like to work in Madrid, what to expect as an intern, finding an internship/placement in Spain etc don't hesitate to ask! Just leave a comment below, tweet me @MadridAdrift or get in touch via facebook.
