Portrait of Marevna

c. 1915

Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957)

Prior to achieving renown as a muralist, Diego Rivera lived in Paris amid Pablo Picasso’s circle, working in a Cubist manner. Portrait of Marevna depicts Rivera’s mistress, the Russian artist Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska. The couple’s relationship was tempestuous; Rivera later described Marevna as a “she-devil,” and he conveyed a sense of her ferocity in this portrait, particularly in the figure’s distinctive frown and squinting eye. The portrait exemplifies Rivera’s adoption of elements of Synthetic Cubism: he constructed images sequentially, building layer upon layer rather than deconstructing forms into fragmented planes. Rivera emphasized the geometric patterning of the composition through his use of textures, such as the rectangular brocade, which appears to be a piece of fabric or wallpaper but is in fact illusionistic paint, referencing Cubist collage techniques.

Status: On View, Gallery 391
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Diego Rivera
Title: Portrait of Marevna
Place: Mexico (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1915
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed lower left: D. M. R.
Dimensions: 145.7 × 112.7 cm (57 3/8 × 44 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection, gift of Georgia O'Keeffe
Reference Number: 1957.628
Copyright: © 2018 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Philadelphia Museum of Art, History of an American: Alfred Stieglitz, “291” and after: Selections from the Stieglitz Collection, exh. cat. (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1944), cat. 121.
Museo Nacional de Artes Plasticas, Exposicion de Homenaje Nacional, Diego Rivera: 50 Años de Su Labor Artistica, exh. cat. (México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1951), n.p., cat. 80 (ill.), as Retrato de Madame Marcoussis.
Bertram D. Wolfe, “The Strange Case of Diego Rivera,” Arts Digest 29, no. 7 (Jan. 1, 1955): 8 (ill.).
Florence Arquin, Diego Rivera: The Shaping of an Artist, 1889–1921 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 84–86, pl. 9, 52 (ill.).
Taracena 1979, 40, fig. 66 (ill.).
Marius de Zayas, “How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York,” introduction and notes by Francis M. Naumann, Arts Magazine 54, no. 8 (April 1980): 119–120, fig. 107 (ill.).
Ramón Favela, Diego Rivera: The Cubist Years, exh. cat. (Phoenix Art Museum, 1984), 111, 123.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth–Century Painting and Sculpture, selected by James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 34 (ill.).
Musée d’Orsay, New York et l’art moderne: Alfred Stieglitz et son cercle (1905–1930), exh. cat. (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux; Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2004), 179, cat. 100 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 60–64, cat. 10 (ill.).
Modern Series: Shutter Rupture Break, digital exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2015), cat. 49 (ill.).
James Rondeau, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 2017), 96.

New York, The Modern Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings by Diego M. Rivera and Mexican Pre–Conquest Art, Oct. 2–21, 1916, cat. 6.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Diego Rivera, Dec. 23, 1931–Jan. 27, 1932, not in cat.; Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Feb. 3–10, 1932 and Feb. 12–29, 1932.
PA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, History of an American: Alfred Stieglitz, “291” and after: Selections from the Stieglitz Collection, 1944, cat. 121.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Stieglitz: His Collection, June 10–Aug. 31, 1947, no. 98, as Portrait of Madame Marcoussis.
Mexico City, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Museo Nacional de Artes Plasticas, Exposición nacional: Diego Rivera, 50 años de su labor artistica, Aug–Dec, 1949, cat. 80, as Retrato de Madame Marcoussis.
MI, Detroit Institute of Arts, Diego Rivera: A Retrospective, Feb. 10–Apr. 27, 1986, cat. 30, fig. 49; PA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 2–Aug. 10, 1986; Mexico City, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Sept. 29, 1986–Jan. 4, 1987.
Paris, Musée d’Orsay, New York et l’Art Moderne: Alfred Stieglitz et Son Cercle (1905–1930) [New York and Modern Art: Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle (1905–1930], Oct. 18, 2004–Jan. 16, 2005, cat. 100 (Paris only).
Art Institute of Chicago, The Modern Series: Shatter Rupture Break, Feb. 15–May 3, 2015, digital cat. 49.

Alfred Stieglitz, New York (1864–1946) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), New York and New Mexico, by 1949 [on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago from Apr. 21, 1949, incoming receipt, R9550; copy in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1957.

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