19TH CENTURY COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Gentleman portrait. Buenos Aires. Circa 1885.

Vintage copy in the "Portrait Cabinet" format mounted on a secondary cardboard support in two colors, white on the front and green on the back and with all its gilt edges. Advertising of the photographic signature at the bottom of the image: "Adrián Lundstrom. Oficina 36. Cangallo 521, Bs. As" and below: "Negative made by Amateur". On the back is a profuse advertising in English. Measures. Photograph: 14 x 10 cm. Secondary support: 16.5 x 10.8 cm. Work in good condition.

We are facing an unusual photographic work from the 19th century where, using the popular "Portrait Cabinet" format of the time, three companies are promoted, "The English" at Cangallo 594, and the J. Brown stores at Piedad 518 and Eugenio Mattaldi in Florida corner Cangallo, the three of the city of Buenos Aires. The image was made by advanced hobbyist Adrian Lundstrom and shows us an elegant gentleman in his work office, surrounded by various ledgers and where the large double-door safe becomes a symbol of wealth.

In relation to the third business we will say that there are very remarkable family stories; such is the case of Eugenio Mattaldi (Milan, Italy: 1843 - Bella Vista, Argentina: 1918) whose father Luis was a rich banker and financier at the service of the Austrian Empire but, when Count Cavour expelled the Austrians from that city, he lost all his fortune. With his family in ruins and only eleven years old, Eugenio embarked as a stowaway to Montevideo, where he arrived very ill with cholera; Left for dead, a Sister of Charity noticed that he was breathing and saved his life.

In 1857 he traveled to the United States, but not adapting, he returned to the Río de la Plata around 1860, settling in Argentina where he dedicated himself to the leather goods business and did so with great success. His prestigious saddlery was at the service of the army in the Paraguayan War and the Desert Campaign. He acquired large extensions of land in the province of Córdoba and, finally, installed an important alcohol distillery in the Buenos Aires town of Bella Vista where he settled. He was an entrepreneur with a strong social sense, a neighborhood in this town bears his name. Married to Ana Simón D'Hangard with whom he had 8 children, he died at the age of 75 in his beautiful villa on October 15, 1918. His remains rest in the "Famiglia Eugenio Mattaldi" pantheon of the cemetery of the Recoleta. At Mattaldi's death his fortune was equal to that of his father.

Abel Alexander

President of the Ibero-American Society for the History of Photography.

S.O.XVII-GGL