Five Seated Women
Rivera made this drawing shortly after returning to Mexico from Europe, where he had lived since 1907. A gifted master of the Cubist idiom (see his The Café Terrace of 1915 in The Met's collection), Rivera painted little after Cubism gave way to a "return to order" and classicism. In 1920 he was petitioned to return to Mexico and participate in a state-sponsored mural program envisioned by Minister of Education José Vasconcelos. Rivera devoted half of that year to traveling in Italy, studying murals by Renaissance masters such as Giotto, Masaccio, Andrea Mantegna, and Piero della Francesca. Here, Rivera depicts everyday life in Mexico in a style that recalls both Italian fresco painting and the African and Iberian forms embraced by Picasso.
Artwork Details
- Title: Five Seated Women
- Artist: Diego Rivera (Mexican, Guanajuato 1886–1957 Mexico City)
- Date: 1921
- Medium: Charcoal on paper
- Dimensions: 12 5/16 × 18 5/8 in. (31.3 × 47.3 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Schapiro, 1981
- Object Number: 1981.497.1
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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