Still Life with an Apple

Prints and Drawings

1918

Diego Rivera
Mexican, 1886-1957

Educated in Mexico City, Diego Rivera also studied art in Madrid and Paris. The simplified forms and juxtaposition of everyday objects in this carefully rendered still life reflect his encounter in Paris during the second decade of the 20th century with the emerging Cubist movement. This artistic foundation would ultimately contribute to the bold style he developed as a leader of the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Rivera’s Communist affiliations were a cause of friction for him in the United States, especially during the McCarthy era. Nevertheless, he completed many commissions here, most notably murals in San Francisco, Detroit, and New York.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Diego Rivera
Title: Still Life with an Apple
Place: Mexico (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1918–1957
Medium: Graphite on tan laid paper
Inscriptions: Signed lower left in graphite: "Rivera. 18"
Dimensions: 23.8 × 31.4 cm (9 3/8 × 12 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Walter S. Brewster
Reference Number: 1954.1078
Copyright: © 2018 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ramón Favela, Diego Rivera: The Cubist Years, exh. cat. (Phoenix Art Museum, 1984), ill. p. 142.
Diego Rivera: Art and Revolution, exh. cat. (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999), ill. p. 178.
Judith A. Barter et al., “American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955,” (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), cat. 11.

Phoenix, Ariz., Phoenix Art Museum, Diego Rivera: The Cubist Years, Mar. 10-Apr. 29, 1984, cat. 76, ill. p. 142, as Still Life, Paris; traveled to New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, June 13-Aug. 4, 1984, San Francisco, Ca., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sept. 27-Nov. 11, 1984, and Mexico City, Museum of Modern Art, Dec. 6, 1984-Feb. 11, 1985.
Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, Diego Rivera: Art and Revolution, Feb. 14-May 2, 1999, cat. 42, ill. p. 178, as Still Life, Paris; traveled to Los Angeles, Ca., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, May 30-Aug. 16, 1999; and Houston, Tex., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Sept. 19-Nov. 28, 1999. [Did not travel to fourth venue in Mexico City.]
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Modern in America: Works on Paper, 1900-1950s,” January 30-May 3, 2010 (no catalogue).

Sold by E. Weyhe, New York, to Walter S. Brewster (1872-1954), Chicago, November 16, 1927 [invoice]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1954.

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