Cambó. The Last Portrait

The biography of a controversial and multifaceted character who shaped the country that we are.
 
Circa 1930 everyone wanted to be Francesc Cambó. A true protagonist of Spanish political life, he was the most relevant and modern of the regenerationists, the most influential leader of emerging Catalanism, a brilliant and documented parliamentarian, an effective and innovative minister and a political writer with true intellectual and historical competence. His ambition led him to imagine a reform and modernization of the state compatible with the existence of full Catalan autonomy. Historical paths prevented him from crowning those great transformations: he could not be Bismarck in Madrid or Bolívar in Catalonia and he ended up supporting, from exile, the triumph of Francoism.
 
This important and contradictory political role coexisted with a busy and successful personal and professional life. Of the first, both his tendency to surround himself with intellectuals at his service stands out, as well as a love life far from the moral norms of the conservative and Catholic bourgeoisie. Of the second, what stands out is his conversion into an important international businessman, whose enormous fortune, achieved through procedures that are not always clear, allowed him to act as a great cultural patron, donate important paintings to the Prado Museum and the MNAC, finance the translation into Catalan of the Greek and Latin classics, or financially helping compatriots during the civil war.

After more than thirty years of dedication, renowned historian Borja de Riquer delivers the most complete portrait of Francesc Cambó, whose life —complex, contradictory, exciting and unusual like few others— is also the portrait of Spain in the first third of the 20th century, and whose legacy continues to be a benchmark for leaders across the ideological spectrum.