Diego Rivera (Mexico, 1886-1957)

Self-Portrait (Autorretrato)

signed, dated January 1941 and dedicated to my dear friend Sigmund Firestone

oil on canvas
27½ × 16½ inches (69.9 × 41.9 cm)
1941

Provenance:

Commissioned from the artist, 1940, finished in 1941
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 19th and 20th Century Mexican Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and prints, May 11, 1979, lot 222
Private collection, Switzerland

Literature:

Diego Rivera, 50 años de su labor artistica , INBA, Mexico; 1951, illus.
Diego Rivera, My Life, My Art , Mexico;1960, illus. between pp. 224-225
Merle Armitage, The Sculpture of Frances Rich , 1974, p. 59, illus. Rivera in the process of painting the related Smith College portrait
Hayden Herrera, Frida, a Biography of Frida Kahlo , pp. 274-275 (discussion of the commission and letters between Frida and Sigmund Firestone) p. 284 (discussion of Frida's mastery of color to communicate emotion in the portraits of 1940)

Exhibited:

Paris, Mona Bismarck Foundation, Peinture Moderne au Mexique , 1999, illus. in color p 139.