Mercado de flores (Mujer cargando un niño) by Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera
1886-1957 | Mexican

Mercado de flores (Mujer cargando un niño)
(Flower Market: Woman carrying a boy)

Signed and dated "Diego Rivera 1951" (lower right)
Watercolor and ink on paper

This exceptional painting, Mercado de flores (Mujer cargando un niño), embodies Diego Rivera's brilliance, capturing his signature subject in vibrant watercolor. With its radiant palette and bold line work, this painting captures Rivera at the height of his international fame and has a surprising connection to Baseball Hall of Fame legend, Waite "Schoolboy" Hoyt. 

Mercado de flores is a never-before-seen masterclass in watercolor, showcasing the electric color and dynamic composition that are the hallmarks of Rivera’s celebrated style. The women are vendors at a vibrant flower market, an important motif that Rivera painted often to celebrate the Aztec history of Mexico City. With the charming moment between mother and son at the center, this painting embodies Rivera's ability to transform an intimate moment into a powerful statement about dignity, labor and Mexican identity. 

Painted in 1951, this work was gifted by Rivera to Waite Hoyt as a token of their friendship, and it has remained in the Hoyt family ever since. Rivera and Hoyt met in 1932, while Rivera was in New York working on his infamous "Man at the Crossroads" mural commission for Nelson Rockefeller and while Hoyt was pitching for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hoyt was already famous as the starting pitcher for the greatest baseball team of all time—the 1927 New York Yankees—alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

According to family lore, Rivera and Hoyt initially bonded over their shared love of art and baseball, and Hoyt gave Rivera tickets to a Dodgers game. Years later, in 1951, Rivera thanked Hoyt by gifting him this very watercolor. Hoyt had begun painting in the early 1950s, so perhaps it was also a gesture of encouragement and camaraderie from Rivera. 

Born in Guanajuato City, Mexico, in 1886, Diego Rivera showed a talent for drawing at a very young age. He moved to Paris in 1907 to live and work with the great gathering of artists in Montparnasse. There, he was exposed to the burgeoning of Cubism, and his work fully embraced this new school of thought. In 1921, Rivera returned to Mexico, where he undertook government-sponsored murals that reflected his political perspective in historical contexts. By the time this watercolor was painted in 1951, Rivera had completed major murals across Mexico and the United States, making him one of the most famous artists in the world.

Rivera's importance has only grown with time, and his market continues to demand millions at auction today. Many of the world's most important museums hold his paintings, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Artand the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City. In 1964, the Mexican government established export regulations to protect Rivera's artworks and keep them in the country, designating them as “artistic monuments” that are now extremely difficult to come by outside of Mexico.

Dated 1951

Paper: 21 1/4" high x 26 1/2" wide (53.98 x 67.31 cm)
Frame: 32 1/4" high x 38" wide x 1" deep (81.92 x 96.52 x 2.54 cm)

View the Dossier

Provenance:
Waite Hoyt, New York, acquired from the artist circa 1951
By descent from the above
M.S. Rau, New Orleans

Literature:
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Diego Rivera: Catálogo General de Obra de Caballete, Mexico, 1989, no. 2021, p. 263, illustrated