Landscape

Rolling hills stretch across this quiet countryside scene, painted around 1900 by a young Diego Rivera. Decades before he became famous for his enormous murals about Mexican history and everyday workers, Rivera was a student learning the basics of his art. The thick, energetic brushstrokes and warm mix of golds, greens, and earthy browns show how closely he was studying the European post-Impressionist painters who inspired so many artists of his generation.

The gentle mood here comes as a surprise to anyone who knows Rivera's later work. No crowds, no bold political messages, no towering scale, just soft clouds drifting over hillsides dotted with small houses. This is Rivera the beginner, working out how to build light and depth on a canvas and simply observing the shape of the land. That sense of an artist still finding his footing gives the painting a modest, honest appeal all its own.