Clotilde García del Castillo

Clotilde García del Castillo (5 January 1865 – 5 January 1929) was a Spanish woman who was the wife and muse of Joaquín Sorolla. Born and raised in Valencia, she first became acquainted with Sorolla through his relationships with her father and brother. García del Castillo and Sorolla married in 1888 and had three children together. Despite periods of separation due to the needs of their family, García del Castillo was an advocate for her husband's work, serving as both his muse and organising his exhibitions and finances. Following Sorolla's death in 1923, García del Castillo bequeathed his work to the Spanish state, establishing the Sorolla Museum at their former home in Madrid.

Early life García del Castillo was born on 5 January 1865 in Valencia, Spain, to Antonio García Peris, a photographer, and his wife, Clotilde del Castillo. She had one brother and four sisters. García del Castillo's brother, Juan Antonio, attended the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia, where he met and befriended Joaquín Sorolla, a fellow art student. Sorolla went on to work for García Peris at his photography studio, where he first met García del Castillo in 1879.

Marriage After studying in Paris and Rome under and alongside Spanish painters including Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz, Emilio Sala and José Villegas, Sorolla returned to Spain, where he and García del Castillo married at the Iglesia de San Martín y San Antonio in Valencia on 8 September 1888. Following the wedding, the couple resided in Assisi for a time before returning to Spain by 1890, settling in a home on the Plaza de Tirso de Molina in Madrid with hopes of attaining greater visibility for Sorolla's work.

Support of Sorolla's career While García del Castillo played a more active role in her husband's career following her and the children's relocation to Madrid from Valencia, she and Sorolla continued to have periods of separation due to the needs of their family. In 1907, after María Clotilde was diagnosed with tuberculosis, García del Castillo temporarily relocated with her to El Pardo to help with her recovery. As a result, she was unable to support with a planned series of exhibitions of Sorolla's work in Germany; the subsequent exhibitions, held in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Cologne, where not as successful as had been hoped. Similarly, in 1913, García del Castillo temporarily relocated to London with Elena to care for Joaquín, who had been injured in a motorcycle accident.

García del Castillo died on her 64th birthday on 5 January 1929, in Madrid. Other paintings featuring García del Castillo by name include Clotilde Contemplating the Venus de Milo (1897), Clotilde in a White Dress and Clotilde with a Spanish Mantilla (both 1902), and Señora de Sorolla in Black (1906).

The 1902 nude painting Desnudo de mujer, which features a naked woman with her back to the viewer, is said to be of García del Castillo.