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Sorolla's approach to light and colour was rooted in the idiosyncratic Valencian school. Valencian art was notable for its efforts to capture the brief, passing moment by using rapid, unbroken brush-strokes and precision colourism. The vivid plein-air scenes, mainly Mediterranean, that the artists recorded in this style nonetheless preserved tonal unities, and might be better described as luminist than Impressionist.
Sorolla arrived at plein-air painting via years as apprentice and journeyman in Valencia, Rome and Paris. Returning to Spain in 1889, he settled in Madrid, where his art began to undergo a stylistic transformation: he attached greater importance to changing conditions of light, and preferred scenes of Spanish folk life, especially in Mediterranean coastal areas. The Beach at Valencia is a good example of this kind of work.
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