Portrait of Paulette Goddard 1941

Diego Rivera painted this portrait of Paulette Goddard, but when? It’s giving me the vibes of a mural, like he painted it on a wall. Look at the scene. Paulette is sat in the foreground in a thin white dress, a pile of pink wool by her side. The other woman, who is faceless, is dark-skinned and appears to be touching up Paulette’s face with a brush. I like this touch – it's so intimate. Maybe Rivera is playing with the idea of making up a face. He's definitely interested in layers of representation. Rivera was a political painter. What’s he up to here? Who knows! As artists, we are all magpies, taking shiny bits we find and putting them into new forms. Painting is a conversation between artists across time. We all learn from each other, playing and experimenting with forms and ideas. The best painters keep things ambiguous, allowing space for many different readings and meaning.