María Cardarelly

• Name — María Cardarelly • Native Name — María Cecilia Cardarelly Bousquet • Born — 1845 • Birthplace — Zaragoza • Died — 1920 • Occupation — Photographer • Notable Works — Rosalia de Castro Portraits

After leaving Zaragoza, the French family of dyers Mariana Bousquet and Agustín Cardarelly arrived in Galicia around 1851, settling for a time in Lugo. It is known that the Cardarellys were itinerant dyers, so they also worked in Orense and Santiago de Compostela, where they finally settled around 1854, when Cardarelly was nine years old. After a short stay in Rúa Nova, they established their home and business in Rúa do Hórreo. Cardarelly grew up in an atmosphere typical of the petit bourgeoisie of the foreign industrialists settled in the city, where it was common to meet and socialise with one another. It is very likely that the Cardarellys befriended the Osterbergers or the Segonds, as well as some of the liberal intellectuals of the time with whom they shared their concerns. These contacts would explain their relationship with the poet Rosalía de Castro and the writer Manuel Murguía, and with other contemporary photographers of a similar ideology.

In 1866, the Cardarelly family left Santiago and set up a new dye shop in Rúa María in Ferrol, where photography was finally put on hold. At the end of 1867, however, his father died of an illness, leaving his mother and Cardarelly unprotected. After two months, Cardarelly married the Madrid painter Juan Velasco, with whom she had a daughter, Matilde Dolores (born 1869). Cardarelly's father died in 1867, leaving Cardarelly and her mother unprotected. Cardarelly started selling pianos with the pianist Canuto Berea Rodríguez out of a need for income and perhaps a desire for independence. She also gave private lessons to girls in the city for many years, and gave piano recitals at various social events in Ferrol. It was during this time that she became friends with the Spanish pianist and composer Eugenia Osterberger, also known as Madame Saunier. She remarried in 1881 to military engineer Antonio Pérez, who died three years later in the Philippines, following the deaths of her daughter and then her husband in 1878. After the turn of the century, Cardarelly's inner circle dwindled considerably and in 1910, aged 65, she moved to Madrid to live with relatives. It is estimated that she died around the second decade of the 20th century.

María Cardarelly is recorded with the occupation photographer. Recorded as a citizen of Spain. Recorded at birth as María Cecilia Cardarelly Bousquet.