May 02, 2019 - Sale 2507

Sale 2507 - Lot 367

Unsold
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
DIEGO RIVERA
Desnudo de Dolores Olmedo.

Lithograph on light tan tissue wove paper, 1930. 382x575 mm; 15x22 3/4 inches. Signed, dated and numbered 71/100 in black crayon, lower margin. Published by Weyhe Gallery, New York. A superb impression of this very scarce lithograph.

We have found only 5 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.

The subject of this portrait is Dolores Olmedo (1908-2002), a Mexican businesswoman, musician and philanthropist. Olmedo is known for her friendships with Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Rivera, and appeared in a number of his paintings and drawings. She first met Rivera when she accompanied her mother, who was a teacher, to the Secretary of Education building in Mexico City, where Rivera was working on a mural. Rivera asked her mother's permission to paint a portrait of Olmedo, and ending up sketching a nude study of her.

She later went on to become one of the most ardent patrons of Rivera's work. Olmedo converted part of her sprawling home in the Xochimilco area of Mexico City into a museum, donating her entire collection of art including colonial, pre-Hispanic, folk, and modern and contemporary art to the city. The Dolores Olmedo Patiño Museum's holdings also include 137 works by Rivera, as well as 25 pieces by Kahlo.