The Pontevedra Museum has incorporated a piece by Castelao of significant interest within his artistic production into its permanent exhibition. It is ‘Man Smoking (Portrait of Llamazares)’, an oil on board dated around 1908, making it the artist's earliest work present in the museum's galleries.
This work, measuring 20.5 by 40.5 cm and signed as A. Rodz. Castelao, depicts a caricatured portrait of a man in a cap lighting a cigarette with a lighter against a neutral background. The humorous tone and loose brushwork are reminiscent of other paintings from the same year, such as those titled ‘On the Phaeton from Rianxo to Santiago’, which are part of the Afundación collection.
The painting was deposited at the Museum by Carmen Trillo Filgueira. According to family lore, the sitter is identified as Llamazares, a popular figure in Compostela during Castelao's university years, when he frequented taverns and shared revelries and jokes with students.
