Joaquín Sorolla may be less well known outside Spain than Picasso or Dalí, but among Spanish painters he commands fierce loyalty. His large canvases capture Mediterranean light with an intensity that photographs cannot reproduce -- brilliant whites, sun on wet sand, children playing in the surf.
The museum occupies the house and garden Sorolla designed for himself in 1911. The ground floor displays his paintings in the studios where he actually worked, which gives the visit an intimacy that a gallery hang cannot match. Upstairs you will find his collection of ceramics, furniture and personal effects. The Andalusian-style garden, with its tiled fountains and climbing jasmine, is a welcome retreat from the noise of Chamberí.
It is one of the quieter museums in Madrid, rarely crowded even at weekends. Allow an hour, longer if you linger in the garden.