Head of a Breton Woman - Diego Rivera
Archival giclée
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Description
A 1918 portrait by Diego Rivera, capturing a Breton woman in traditional attire through the lens of early twentieth-century European modernism.
Painted in 1918, this portrait reflects the period Diego Rivera spent in Europe, where he engaged with the formal experiments of the Parisian avant-garde. During these years, Rivera moved away from traditional representation, adopting the structural rigour of Cubism. This work captures a subject from Brittany, a region that attracted many artists of the era due to its distinct cultural identity and traditional dress.
The composition focuses on the subject's face, framed by the stark white fabric of a traditional Breton coif. Rivera employs a controlled palette, contrasting the luminous, warm tones of the woman's skin against the deep, dark background and the solid black of her garment. The brushwork is deliberate, building the form through planes and volumes rather than soft transitions. The coif, with its characteristic wings, provides a geometric structure that echoes the stylistic concerns of his wider body of work from this decade.
Unlike his later, large-scale murals that define his career in Mexico, this painting demonstrates his technical training and his ability to synthesise European modernism with a keen observation of human character. The expression is one of quiet gravity, avoiding sentimentality. The artist uses the rigid lines of the headpiece to anchor the composition, creating a sense of balance between the decorative elements of the costume and the psychological presence of the sitter. This piece offers a view into a specific moment in Rivera's career, showing his transition toward the monumental style that would eventually characterise his public art.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
Care and materials
Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Head of a Breton Woman - Diego Rivera
Artist Biography
Diego Rivera
He studied at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City and spent fourteen years in Europe (1907-1921), absorbing Cubism in Paris and working alongside Picasso, Modigliani, and Mondrian. He returned to Mexico and found his subject: the history, labour, and people of his country, painted in a style that combined Renaissance fresco technique with pre-Columbian imagery and Marxist ideology.
The Detroit Industry Murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts (1932-33) are twenty-seven panels depicting the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge plant. The workers are heroic. The machinery is beautiful. Henry Ford's son Edsel commissioned them. The business community wanted them destroyed. They survived.
He married Frida Kahlo in 1929. They divorced in 1939. They remarried in 1940. The relationship was mutually unfaithful, politically intense, and artistically productive for both of them. Rivera said Kahlo was the better painter. Whether he believed this or was performing generosity is an open question.
He accepted a commission from Nelson Rockefeller for a mural in Rockefeller Center in 1933 and included a portrait of Lenin. Rockefeller asked him to remove it. Rivera refused. The mural was destroyed. Rivera repainted it in Mexico City. He died in 1957, at seventy.
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