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On October 2nd, 1910, Diego came down the steamship gangplank at the port of Veracruz wearing a broad grin for his waiting father and his sister. Alongside his family stood representatives of the Society of Mexican Painters and Sculptors and, with shutters clicking and notepads poised, members of the press edged forward. Diego Rivera, the newspapers would proclaim, was the new poster child for the efforts of President Porfirio Díaz to bring European culture and values to Mexico.

Self-Portrait

1916

Oil on canvas, 82 × 61 cm

Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City

To further stamp the imprimatur of government approval on his exhibition, the president’s wife, Carmen (Carmelita) Romero Rubio de Díaz would open Diego’s exhibition on November 20th. President Díaz declined to attend Diego’s opening because across Mexico bands of unskilled and illiterate peons and valued farm worker campesinos were mounting up and gathering in small bands that merged into armies. Emiliano Zapata brought his mounted army up from the south toward Morelos, only a few miles from Mexico City.

Still Life with Green House

1917

Oil on canvas, 61 × 46 cm

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Diego’s show was extended to December 20th, and then the Academy de San Carlos was cleaned out. Thirteen of the thirty-five paintings were sold, bringing the artist 4,000 pesos.

He left Mexico City on January 3rd, 1910 for a small village two hours away by train named Amecameca. Having the documented evidence of Rivera’s movements and associations during this 1910 to 1911 period, the self-portrait he painted of the “revolutionary” and “patriot” Diego Rivera years later during this explosive time in Mexico’s history makes for wonderful fiction. In later years when he had once again become the artistic symbol of Mexico and needed to show his street credentials to the latest regime, his part in the Mexican Revolution between 1911 and 1920 became a lusty tale of adventure. In reality, while parked safely behind his easel in Amecameca peering at the volcano Popocatépetl, looking at the sweeping snow-capped volcanic mountain range spread before him, the sun-drenched colours of the fresh spring foliage at his feet, crowns of yellow flowers that capped the cacti of the high desert, he knew where he had to find this new direction for his art. He packed his paints and headed back to his hostel where he prepared to leave for Paris.

Midi Landscape

1918

Oil on canvas, 79.5 × 63.2 cm

Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City

Portrait of Angelina Beloff

1918

Oil on canvas, 116 × 146 cm

Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City