Pablo Casals. México D.F. Circa 1958.

Vintage gelatin silver print with white margin; work dedicated and signed on the front by the great Spanish musician: “To Dr. R. E. Montes i Bradley. Pablo Casals. 1959". On the back is located the advertising wet stamp of the photographic firm. Measurements: 17.2 x 13.4 cm / 6.77 x 5.27 in. Work in good condition. Former Montes i Bradley collection.

In the field of photographic portraiture, the registration of famous people is a constant mission among photojournalists at the service of the mainstream media. Such was the fate of the famous Catalan cellist Pau Carles Salvador Casals i Defilló (1876-1973), better known as Pablo Casals, who from a very young age and due to his innate musical talent, had to pose again and again for press photographers of the entire world.

This was then the important task of the operator of the Mexican agency "Foto Hnos. Mayo" when, in 1958, he focused on it with his camera: it was on the occasion of Casals' visit to Mexico on the occasion of the World Violoncello Contest, held in the Aztec capital.

With great professionalism, our photographer chose to execute a character portrait, he then placed Pablo Casals -now in his eighties- in a three-quarter profile pose and in the half-bust mode. The intellectual "touch" is given by his inevitable model "Park Lane" pipe in mahogany wood and black mouthpiece.

There was an absolute communion of political interests between the Catalan Pablo Casals - who swore not to return to his homeland while Franco ruled - and the Galician photographic agency of the "Hermanos Mayo"; because all of them lived in exiles in Latin America fleeing the government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

The portrait is curiously dedicated to another political exile, the Argentine intellectual and diplomat Ricardo Ernesto Montes i Bradley. (On his biography, see item 34)