Madrid's Sorolla Museum reopens with new wing, but house stays shut

The Sorolla Museum in Madrid reopens on 15 October with a new extension after two years behind hoardings.

Visitors will enter new galleries first. The historic house itself stays shut. The residence and studio, or atelier, of Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) will remain closed for restoration when the museum reopens, according to The Art Newspaper.

The completed first phase adds 1,698 sq. m. It holds new exhibition spaces, an auditorium and storage facilities. The design is by Nieto Sobejano, the architecture firm based in Madrid and Berlin.

The opening show looks at the building rather than the paintings. It is titled Behind the Artist's House: The Architecture of the Sorolla Museum, 1905–2026. The Museo Sorolla in Madrid, the state museum administered by Spain's Ministry of Culture, lists the temporary exhibition as starting on 15 October.

Sorolla oversaw construction of his atelier-home himself between 1909 and 1911. It opened to the public as a museum in 1932, nine years after his death. The collection now holds 1,394 paintings and around 5,000 drawings by Sorolla.

The need for space is not new. In 2009, Spain's Ministry of Culture acquired two adjacent properties at the rear of the museum to expand its then 1,432 sq. m of usable floor space. Work on the overhaul began in January 2022. The museum closed in October 2024. The ministry confirmed on 29 September that the extension would open to the public on 15 October, according to Spain's Ministry of Culture.

For visitors, this means a different route for now. Expect modern rooms, the architecture story, and collection displays without the period rooms. The house draws crowds. It welcomed 344,799 visitors in 2023. Before it shut, it stayed open longer for a final fortnight in September, then closed to visitors on 1 October 2024.