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Lot Essay
Diego Rivera was not only the most celebrated of the Mexican muralists, but an accomplished portraitist. Although academically trained in Mexico, it was in Europe that he first developed an interest in this traditional genre. And, while firmly grounded in its conventions, portraiture provided Rivera with a point of entry for accessing vanguard tendencies. Indeed, it was a portrait that represented Rivera in his Parisian debut at the 1912 Salon d’Automne.
During his cubist period (1913-1916), Rivera often employed portraiture as a means for experimenting with a dynamic approach to space as well as for his relentless pursuit of the representation of the fourth dimension in painting. Guided by Cézanne’s teachings, Rivera portraits reflected the influence of the retour à l’ordre and the neoclassicism adopted by the vanguard after World War I, an approach at times reminiscent of the of the strategies of Ingres and Renoir.
The traditional renderings in classical female portraiture of Olympian deities become fashionable during the eighteenth century, both in the French Rococo and in British paintings. It was during the twentieth century in the context of the modern Olympics, that female archers were permitted to compete in a sport previously considered a leisure activity reserved for the aristocracy and upper classes. Much like women’s tennis, Olympic archery emerged as a symbol of the modern woman’s autonomy in the twentieth century, as much for the physical discipline required as for the intellectual and competitive rigor it demanded, regardless of gender.
Rivera was attracted to this notion of a modern woman and produced portraits of many of these female athletes, including the tennis player Helen Wills Moody—eight-time Wimbledon winner whom he immortalized in the mural for the San Francisco Stock Exchange in 1931 as the epitome of American youth and beauty. Likewise, it was as a modern day Diana, the Huntress that Rivera painted the young Matilda Gray II, the niece of the heiress Matilda Geddings Gray, who had visited Mexico in the 1940s and acquired works by the muralist and Kahlo.
In 1945, Rivera returned to the same conceit for his portrait of Anita Antunes (1915-1950), a Brazilian model and journalism student. Antunes was married briefly in 1942 to the American Anthony Dearborn in the United States, but following their separation, she moved to Mexico. It was there, she acquired (under her married name) a few watercolors by Rivera from Galería Misrachi. However, it was through her friendship with the attorney and collector Antonio Luna Arroyo, that she met the legendary muralist. It is believed that Ana and her young daughter, Jane Elizabeth, served as models for Rivera’s mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at the Alameda Park)—originally painted for the dining room at the former Hotel del Prado—and likely Ana modeled for the controversial series of scantily clad women, Pin-up Girls, for Ciro’s Bar at the old Reforma Hotel. During her stay in Mexico, Antunes developed a close relationship with the famous artist frequently visiting his home and studio in San Ángel where she admired his pre-Hispanic collection. Rivera also painted a double portrait of Antunes with her daughter and gifted her with drawings and watercolors which she took home upon her return to Brazil.
Dressed in an athletic uniform and wearing sandals similar to those of an Olympic Diana, what on the surface appears to be a portrait of a fierce and focused Amazon woman, is actually a careful study in classical proportions skillfully executed through Rivera’s remarkable talents honed during his earlier years as a cubist painter. Accordingly, between the crossing of the diagonals formed between the shoulders and opposite arms, a scalene triangle is revealed. Each segment is formed by lines that link the heart with the hands; and the third with the ascendant axis formed through the arrow. This geometric calculation is contrasted with a second polygon, also made up of three vertices—two at the ends of the points of the D-shaped arc, following the line of the taut rope and connecting diagonally with the third opposite vertex, positioned along the hand that holds the arrow at its base. It is through the intersection of these triangles, one scalene and the other rectangular, that the golden section of the painting is mathematically organized in accordance with the “golden ratio” or Divina Proportione. Thus, Rivera’s portrait of Anita Antunes was constructed much like a cubist painting, in its pursuit of perfect harmony or Divina Proportione, transforming this seemingly traditional portrait not only into a symbol of modernity but also a testament to the artist’s compositional mastery.
Professor Luis-Martín Lozano, art historian.
During his cubist period (1913-1916), Rivera often employed portraiture as a means for experimenting with a dynamic approach to space as well as for his relentless pursuit of the representation of the fourth dimension in painting. Guided by Cézanne’s teachings, Rivera portraits reflected the influence of the retour à l’ordre and the neoclassicism adopted by the vanguard after World War I, an approach at times reminiscent of the of the strategies of Ingres and Renoir.
The traditional renderings in classical female portraiture of Olympian deities become fashionable during the eighteenth century, both in the French Rococo and in British paintings. It was during the twentieth century in the context of the modern Olympics, that female archers were permitted to compete in a sport previously considered a leisure activity reserved for the aristocracy and upper classes. Much like women’s tennis, Olympic archery emerged as a symbol of the modern woman’s autonomy in the twentieth century, as much for the physical discipline required as for the intellectual and competitive rigor it demanded, regardless of gender.
Rivera was attracted to this notion of a modern woman and produced portraits of many of these female athletes, including the tennis player Helen Wills Moody—eight-time Wimbledon winner whom he immortalized in the mural for the San Francisco Stock Exchange in 1931 as the epitome of American youth and beauty. Likewise, it was as a modern day Diana, the Huntress that Rivera painted the young Matilda Gray II, the niece of the heiress Matilda Geddings Gray, who had visited Mexico in the 1940s and acquired works by the muralist and Kahlo.
In 1945, Rivera returned to the same conceit for his portrait of Anita Antunes (1915-1950), a Brazilian model and journalism student. Antunes was married briefly in 1942 to the American Anthony Dearborn in the United States, but following their separation, she moved to Mexico. It was there, she acquired (under her married name) a few watercolors by Rivera from Galería Misrachi. However, it was through her friendship with the attorney and collector Antonio Luna Arroyo, that she met the legendary muralist. It is believed that Ana and her young daughter, Jane Elizabeth, served as models for Rivera’s mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at the Alameda Park)—originally painted for the dining room at the former Hotel del Prado—and likely Ana modeled for the controversial series of scantily clad women, Pin-up Girls, for Ciro’s Bar at the old Reforma Hotel. During her stay in Mexico, Antunes developed a close relationship with the famous artist frequently visiting his home and studio in San Ángel where she admired his pre-Hispanic collection. Rivera also painted a double portrait of Antunes with her daughter and gifted her with drawings and watercolors which she took home upon her return to Brazil.
Dressed in an athletic uniform and wearing sandals similar to those of an Olympic Diana, what on the surface appears to be a portrait of a fierce and focused Amazon woman, is actually a careful study in classical proportions skillfully executed through Rivera’s remarkable talents honed during his earlier years as a cubist painter. Accordingly, between the crossing of the diagonals formed between the shoulders and opposite arms, a scalene triangle is revealed. Each segment is formed by lines that link the heart with the hands; and the third with the ascendant axis formed through the arrow. This geometric calculation is contrasted with a second polygon, also made up of three vertices—two at the ends of the points of the D-shaped arc, following the line of the taut rope and connecting diagonally with the third opposite vertex, positioned along the hand that holds the arrow at its base. It is through the intersection of these triangles, one scalene and the other rectangular, that the golden section of the painting is mathematically organized in accordance with the “golden ratio” or Divina Proportione. Thus, Rivera’s portrait of Anita Antunes was constructed much like a cubist painting, in its pursuit of perfect harmony or Divina Proportione, transforming this seemingly traditional portrait not only into a symbol of modernity but also a testament to the artist’s compositional mastery.
Professor Luis-Martín Lozano, art historian.