PRESS RELEASE
Diego Rivera’s Portrait of Marevna
to Lead Phillips’ Auction of Latin American Art
100-Year-Old Cubist Masterwork from the Collection of Eugene S. and Natalie R. Jones
to be Offered on 22 November in New York
Diego Rivera 1886 - 1957
Portrait of Marevna, Painted in 1916.
Estimate: $800,000-1,200,000
NEW YORK – 24 OCTOBER 2016 – Phillips is pleased to present Diego Rivera’s Portrait of Marevna as the leading artwork
in the upcoming auction of Latin American Art on 22 November. Estimated at $800,000-1,200,000, this exceptional
cubist work, was executed one hundred years ago in 1916 and has remained in the private collection of Eugene S. and
Natalie R. Jones for forty years. From 1984 to 1985, the painting was included in the groundbreaking exhibition Diego
Rivera: The Cubist Years, which traveled from the Phoenix Art Museum to New York’s IBM Gallery of Science and Art, the
San Francisco Museum of Art, and Mexico City’s Museum of Modern Art. Not only is it incredibly rare for a painting of this
period to come to market, but it is almost unheard of to find a cubist Rivera in the United States. The sale of this painting
marks a monumental opportunity for an international collector or museum to acquire this work.
Kaeli Deane, Phillips’ Head of Sale, Latin American Art, said, “We are thrilled to have been entrusted with the sale of
this work from such a seminal period in Rivera’s oeuvre. In Portrait of Marevna, we see the artist’s masterful exploration
of Cubism, arguably the most important European artistic movement of the 20th Century. This painting reminds viewers
of Rivera’s immersion in the Parisian avant-garde – as a contemporary and friend of Picasso and Modigliani, among others
– before he returned to his home country where he led the famous Mexican Mural Movement, transforming all he learned
from Europe into a unique style that would permanently alter the course of art history in Mexico.”
The Painting.
In 1907, when Diego Rivera was 21 years old, the Mexican government sponsored his studies in Spain under the acclaimed
painter Eduardo Chicharro. He then spent the next 14 years in Europe, painting prolifically, and perfecting the more
technical aspects of a wide variety of styles. In Paris, he met and befriended a series of Cubist and Fauvist painters, such
as Picasso, Derain, Braque, Gris and Modigliani. During this pivotal period in his career from 1912 to 1917, Rivera painted in
a Cubist style. It was this European education and his introduction to the Parisian intelligentsia, coupled with his solid
artistic education in Mexico, that helped him develop his personal and distinctive pictorial style.
During this period, Rivera painted Portrait of Marevna in 1916, demonstrating his interest in and proclivity for Synthetic
Cubism. The painting has long been believed to depict Rivera’s first wife (by common law), Angelina Beloff, a Russian
artist who met Rivera in Bruges and later moved with him to Paris, eventually bearing Rivera his first son, Diegito.
However, it is widely known that in 1915, Diego Rivera began an affair with Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska, nicknamed
Marevna, another Russian émigré, who would eventually give birth to the Rivera’s first daughter, Marika. Marevna was a
cubist painter herself, running in the same circles as artists like Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. Well-known in
Paris for her blonde hair with bangs and her fiery personality, we now know that Rivera painted three portraits of her,
thanks to new scholarship by Professor Luis Martín-Lozano, the leading expert on Rivera. The first of these portraits from
1915 is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, donated by Georgia O’Keefe from the Alfred Stieglitz
collection. The third, titled Mujer sentada en una butaca from 1917 is in the permanent collection of Mexico’s Instituto
Nacional de Bellas Artes. The 1916 painting to be offered at Phillips’ auction in November has now conclusively been
identified as the second. This painting arguably best evinces the style Rivera was perfecting during these years with its
simplicity of form and vibrant colors. Unlike the other cubists, who often used a muted color palette, Rivera drew heavily
on his memories of Mexico, imbuing his works with the bright hues that reminded him of home.
After a jaunt in Italy, Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 and, although at first glance Cubism seems to disappear from his
later work, the fact remains that Cubism left a resounding impact on the artist. Rivera believed that “Cubism was the most
important achievement in the arts since the Renaissance,” and he would use cubist compositional elements to build his
monumental murals from his mature period. The rigor with which he explored this radical technique provided him the
discipline for future pictorial constructions. The bold colors he used in his cubist paintings laid the foundation for the rich
and harmonious palette for which he is now renowned.
The History.
Portrait of Marevna was purchased directly from Diego Rivera in Paris in 1916 by Alice Warner Garrett, wife of John W.
Garrett, an American diplomat who was posted in Paris at the time. Throughout their lives, the Garretts were active
philanthropists. In 1952, their family mansion, Evergreen House, was donated to
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland. Mrs. Garrett later established the
Evergreen House Foundation to maintain the estate, to which she later donated her
art collection.
After many decades with the Garretts, Portrait of Marevna was sold at auction in
1976 to benefit the Evergreen Foundation. It was purchased by Eugene S. and
Natalie R. Jones in that auction through Mr. Jones’ cousin, Spencer Samuels, a wellknown dealer at the time. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were NBC foreign correspondents and
American filmmakers who have been nominated for and awarded a variety of major
motion picture honors, from an Academy Award to an Emmy, during their 25-yearcareer creating non-fiction feature length films. They travelled the world together,
often through dangerous territory, with a dedicated passion for producing and
directing live, taped, and filmed television specials, interviewing such icons as John
F. Kennedy and Sophia Loren, among others. Portrait of Marevna has remained with the Joneses since they purchased it
at auction and becoming the cornerstone of their collection. In 1984-1985, they generously loaned the work to the
travelling exhibition Diego Rivera: The Cubist Years, in which it toured to the Phoenix Art Museum, New York’s IBM
Gallery of Science and Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and Mexico City’s Museum of Modern Art.
Auction: Tuesday, 22 November 2016, 11am
Auction viewing: 18-22 November | Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Link to more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010916
Tour Information: Portrait of Marevna will also be included on tour in Miami from 3-6 November at the Miami Design District. (10 am - 6 pm, Palm
Court event space, 140 NE 39th Street, Miami)
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*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
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