Lot Essay
The circumstances surrounding the creation of Paulette Goddard's portrait is a highly dramatic event in the turbulent and dramatic life of Diego Rivera. Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia had arrived as political refugees in Mexico in 1937 and were soon invited to stay with Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo, in the Casa Azul in Coyocan.
Despite a warm and congenial friendship with the couple, it became necessary for the Trotskys to move into another safe house nearby--a move which was largely influenced by the fact that Trotsky had started an affair with Frida and Diego no longer felt he wanted them under his roof. The fact that the GPU in Moscow were gathering forces to have Trotsky assasinated also made a fortess-like environment for Trotsky an urgent necessity.
When Paulette Goddard arrived in Mexico in 1940, Rivera was happily painting a stream of North American ladies who not only adored sitting for the famous artist but even occasionally allowed themselves to be seduced by him. Paulette, who was married to Charlie Chaplin at the time and was also known to go by the nickname of 'Sugar,' soon joined this list of famous women and agreed to sit for her portrait. She was an important movie star with Paramount Pictures and had just completed a film entitled 'The Great Dictator.'
Rivera conceived the painting as a double-portrait which included a yound Indian model, thus lending a Mexican atmosphere to the work and also further enhanced the piece by the use of a petate and pre-Colombian objects. It was while Rivera was working on the portrait that news reached him about an attempt on Trotsky's life which took place just a few houses away and riddled the house with 137 bullets. Trotsky barely escaped with his life.
Rivera felt threatened by these circumstances due to his own involvement with Trotsky, and so it came about that he left the country with Paulette Goddard and went to San Francisco where he had been invited to paint a mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition. The ten panels, mounted on steel frames, still carry the theme of 'Pan American Unity' and in the central panel one can see Paulette Goddard holding 'the tree of life and love' while being admired by Diego Rivera who is seated next to her. When Rivera suddenly left Mexico after Trotsky's attempted assassination, the Portrait of Paulette Goddard was unfinished. Evidently, Rivera finished it at a later date and the piece eventually found its way to the sitter.
Despite a warm and congenial friendship with the couple, it became necessary for the Trotskys to move into another safe house nearby--a move which was largely influenced by the fact that Trotsky had started an affair with Frida and Diego no longer felt he wanted them under his roof. The fact that the GPU in Moscow were gathering forces to have Trotsky assasinated also made a fortess-like environment for Trotsky an urgent necessity.
When Paulette Goddard arrived in Mexico in 1940, Rivera was happily painting a stream of North American ladies who not only adored sitting for the famous artist but even occasionally allowed themselves to be seduced by him. Paulette, who was married to Charlie Chaplin at the time and was also known to go by the nickname of 'Sugar,' soon joined this list of famous women and agreed to sit for her portrait. She was an important movie star with Paramount Pictures and had just completed a film entitled 'The Great Dictator.'
Rivera conceived the painting as a double-portrait which included a yound Indian model, thus lending a Mexican atmosphere to the work and also further enhanced the piece by the use of a petate and pre-Colombian objects. It was while Rivera was working on the portrait that news reached him about an attempt on Trotsky's life which took place just a few houses away and riddled the house with 137 bullets. Trotsky barely escaped with his life.
Rivera felt threatened by these circumstances due to his own involvement with Trotsky, and so it came about that he left the country with Paulette Goddard and went to San Francisco where he had been invited to paint a mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition. The ten panels, mounted on steel frames, still carry the theme of 'Pan American Unity' and in the central panel one can see Paulette Goddard holding 'the tree of life and love' while being admired by Diego Rivera who is seated next to her. When Rivera suddenly left Mexico after Trotsky's attempted assassination, the Portrait of Paulette Goddard was unfinished. Evidently, Rivera finished it at a later date and the piece eventually found its way to the sitter.