A head-and shoulders portrait of Albert Spalding wearing a white shirt and a spotted bow tie, photographed against a plain white background.
Albert Spalding [1888-1953] was an internationally recognized violinist and composer. He studied the violin privately in New York City and Florence and at conservatories in Paris and Bologna, the latter graduating him with honors at the age of 14. He retired from the concert stage in 1950 and thereafter taught master classes at Boston University and, in the summers, at Florida State University. The credit slip attached to the photograph lists him as "Albert Spaulding [sic] who upholds America's proud right to claim the production of a violinist of indisputably first rank".
The photographer George Maillard Kesslere [1894-1979] studied art at Syracuse University. On graduating he established a portrait studio in Syracuse, N.Y. where he practiced both photography and painting. In 1921 he moved his studio to New York where he won fame for the artistic qualities of his theatrical and fashion photography and for his paintings and pastels of diaphonously draped nude dancers. His portraiture won him recognition by the British Royal Academy of Photography. The "B.P. "which he later attached to his signature referred to this honor. Very good .
Keywords: MUSIC; MUSICIAN; VIOLIN; AMERICAN VIOLINIST; ALBERT SPALDING; RARE ORIGINAL PUBLICITY PHOTO OF REKNOWNED AMERICAN VIOLINIST AND COMPOSER ALBERT SPALDING; PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY; G. MAILLARD KESSLERE, B.P.