Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, to a well-to-do family. Rivera was descended from Spanish nobility on his father's side. Diego had a twin brother named Carlos, who died two years after they were born. From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. He was sponsored to continue to study by Teodoro A.Dehesa Mendez, the governor of the state of Veracruz.
After arrival in Europe in 1907, Rivera initially went to study with Eduardo Chicharro in Madrid, Spain, and from there went to Paris, France, to live and work with the great gathering of artists in Montparnasse, especially at La Ruche, where his friend Amedeo Modigliani painted his portrait in 1914. His circle of close friends, which included IIya Ehrenburg, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani and Modigliani's wife Jeanne Hebuterne, Max Jacob, gallery owner Leopold zborowski, and Moise Kisling, was captured for posterity by Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska (Marvena) in her painting "Homage to Friends from Montparnasse" (1962).
Our Networks