Object number1988.50

Roberto Rosales

Date1930

Artist Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886 - 1957)

CultureMexican

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 22 1/2 x 14 in. (57.1 x 35.6 cm)
Framed: 27 x 18 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (68.6 x 47 x 3.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Bernard Barnes (Carolyn Payne, class of 1934)

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Painting

InscribedOn front, by artist, lower center [within banderole]: aqui està el niño Roberto Rosales a los 4 años de edad / nacido en coyoacán, lo pintò Diego Rivera en ese mismo lugar / año de 1930. [Here is the boy Roberto Rosales at 4 years old / born in coyoacán, he was painted by Diego Rivera in that same place / in the year 1930.]; on verso, by an unidentified hand, on an unidentified printed label in Spanish affixed to the lower stretcher bar in pencil: IV / WEY[likely HE, thus corresponding to the provenance, but incorrect spelling] CAL

BibliographyFain, Yonia, Karen Albert, Emily Lowe Gallery, and Hofstra Museum. Yonia Fain: Remembrance. Hempstead N.Y: Hofstra University Museum, 2012, p. 34; Nobuyuki, Okabe. Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. Japan: Yamagata Museum of Art, 2008, cat. no. 40 Oles, James, Diego Rivera, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Diego Rivera's America. San Francisco California: University of California Press, 2020, pl. 65, pp. 81, 93; Rivera, Diego, Jere Abbott, Frances Flynn Paine, and Museum of Modern Art. Diego Rivera. New York: Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Norton, 1931, cat. no. 38 ProvenanceE. Weyhe Bookshop/Art Gallery, New York;
purchased by Edward M. M. Warburg;
gifted to Carolyn Payne (Mrs. Bernard Barnes) on the occasion of her wedding, December 3, 1936

Vassar Exhibitions

Highlights from the Loeb’s Mexican Art Collection

Paris-New York: Modernist Painting in 19th and 20th century Masterworks from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College

Exhibition HistoryDiego Rivera, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, December 23, 1931 - January 27, 1932;

Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Shimane Art Museum, Matsue, Japan, March 7 - May 11, 2008; Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume, Japan, May 17 - July 20, 2008; Yamagata Museum of Art, Yamagata, Japan, July 30 - August 31, 2008; Fuchu Art Museum, Fuchu, Japan, September 6 - November 3, 2008; Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Miyazaki, Japan, November 14 - December 14, 2008;

Yonia Fain: Remembrance, Hofstra University Museum, Long Island, NY, April 19 - August 3, 2012;

Diego Rivera's America, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, July 16, 2022 - January 3, 2023; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, March 11 - July 31, 2023

Label TextThe young boy in this portrait by Diego Rivera is invested with a gravitas that seems to belie his age. Wearing a hat, holding hands to his chest, his pose conveys a focused formality. An inscription in Spanish states, “Here is the boy Roberto Rosales at 4 years old, born in Coyoacán, painted by Diego Rivera in that same place in 1930.” Rivera underlines the individuality of his subject, as well as his connection to Coyoacán, a historic area of Mexico City that was built on the site of a pre-Columbian settlement. This portrait is a key example of Rivera’s many portraits of children, and was included in his 1931 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is distinctive in the way Rivera draws explicitly on the retablo format for the composition, with a tripartite background and a narrative text at the bottom. El niño joven en esta pintura de Diego Rivera es presentado con un aire de seriedad que parece ocultar su edad. Al llevar un sombrero y sostener las manos contra el pecho, su pose transmite un esfuerzo para parecer formal. Una frase inscrita en español explica: “Aquí está el niño Roberto Rosales a los 4 años de edad nacido en Coyoacán, pintado por Diego Rivera en ese mismo lugar en el año 1930.” Rivera subraya la individualidad del sujeto, al igual que su conexión con Coyoacán, un área histórica de la Ciudad de México que fue construida en donde se hallaba un asentamiento precolombino. Esta pintura es un ejemplo clave del gran número de figuras de niños de Rivera, y en 1931 fue parte de su retrospectiva en el Museo de Arte Moderno de Nueva York. Se distingue de los demás por la forma en que Rivera toma prestado el formato de retablo para la composición, con un fondo de tres secciones y un texto narrativo en la parte inferior.

DescriptionDepiction of a young boy in a hat, Roberto Rosales, standing with his hands in front of his chest looking directly at the viewer. Behind him is a two-toned blue wall with a thin horizontal strip of green separating the two blues. He stands on a brown ground with a scroll banner at the bottom reading "aqui està el niño Roberto Rosales a los 4 años de edad / nacido en coyoacán, lo pintò Diego Rivera en ese mismo lugar / año de 1930."

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu