Portrait of Ángel Fernández de Soto

This piece is one of the definitive results of the modifications that Gargallo made to the bust of his friend Fernández de Soto (the beloved Patas), from whom he first separated the hand and eliminated the left shoulder, to finally convert it into two different sculptures, once the head and hand (also included in this catalogue) of the character were made independent and all the rest of the initial work was suppressed.

Ángel Fernández de Soto was a commercial representative (or traveling salesman, and perhaps hence his friendly nickname), a great fan of the arts, a regular member of the Els Quatre Gats cafe gathering and brother of the sculptor Mateu Fernández de Soto.

With the title L'home de la pipa (portrait of A. F. de S.), the first version of the portrait was presented by Gargallo in the Special Room dedicated to him at the Barcelona Art Exhibition, in 1921. It was also part of the Exposition d'art français contemporain au Japon, in 1925, although it was already the second version, not yet definitive.