Diego Rivera (1886-1957)

Private Collection, Mexico

This work is in generally good condition overall. Age-related general craquelure is present. Minor paint loss in a few isolated areas, some specifically along the lower left border and near the signature, however, without affecting the signature. Some restoration visible under UV light, in spare areas of the overall canvas and in the main female figure. Tacking edges are present on all all four borders, which are slightly visible in the front and more so in the back. This painting is part of the National Heritage of Mexico and cannot be permanently exported from the country. Accordingly, it is offered for sale in New York from the catalogue and will not be available in New York for inspection or delivery. The painting will be released to the purchaser in Mexico in compliance with all local requirements. Prospective buyers may contact Sotheby’s representatives in Mexico City and Monterrey for an appointment to view the work.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

We wish to thank Proffesor Luis-Martin Lozano for his kind assistance in confirming the authenticity of this lot.

This painting is part of the National Heritage of Mexico and cannot be permanently exported from the country. Accordingly, it is offered for sale in New York from the catalogue and will not be available in New York for inspection or delivery. The painting will be released to the purchaser in Mexico in compliance with all local requirements. Prospective buyers may contact Sotheby’s representatives in Mexico City and Monterrey for an appointment to view the work.

By 1916, the Mexican painter Diego Rivera had begun to question the road which had led him to Cubism, the style he had explored since the end of 1912. Even as one of the most active theoretical Cubist painters, Rivera saw a need to reevaluate the treatment of the human figure, following the model Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres’ drawings.

Le rappel á l’Ordre or the return to order, was his latest experimentation with Parisian trends wherein he shared an avant-garde neoclassicism with many other painters such as Pablo Picasso and André Derain. It was however, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting that produced a huge impact on the work of Diego Rivera between 1918 and 1919. From this master of Impressionism, Rivera assumed the sensual treatment of the female body and a taste for the feminine shapes of the bathers of Cagnes-Sur-Mer, where the two artists met.

This small work—delicious in its format—belongs to a series of paintings with the theme of nudes and bathers that Rivera experimented with towards the year 1919. In them, the female nude appears bathed by a sensual light that seems to emanate from their bodies, whose forms are trimmed with the crimson color of the flesh. The treatment certainly is modern and diaphanous, evoking with pictorial poetry the loose brushstrokes from Paul Cézanne, as noted by the French critic, Élie Faure.