Woman Holding Fruit

This pigment and charcoal piece is a sketch for one of the upper panels of the Detroit Industry mural. Located in the eponymous city’s Institute of Art, the mural depicts both the specific industrial advances of the Ford Motor Company and the more general development of industry over time and space. Likely a kind of fertility figure, the nude woman’s form wraps around the foodstuff she holds, almost enveloping them into her. As the fruit is roughly the same size and shape as the woman’s breasts, Rivera could be directly linking agricultural fertility with that of this woman – a Mother Earth incarnate.

Creator: Diego Rivera

Date: 1932

Original Medium: Charcoal and pigment on off-white wove paper

Original Size: 100 1/2 x 86 7/8 in.

Location: Detroit Institute of Arts