The Flower Carrier – (Diego Rivera) Previous Next


Artist:

Style: Realism

Topic: Men Flowers

Date: 1935

Size: 48 x 47 cm

Museum: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, United States)

Technique: Oil;Painting

In 1935, Diego Rivera masterfully created ‘The Flower Carrier’ (known in its original language as ‘Cargador de Flores’). Like many of Rivera’s paintings, ‘The Flower Carrier’ imparts simplicity, yet exudes much symbolism and meaning. The vibrant colors are rubbed into the masonite, a most common method for painting on hard surfaces. The colourful painting displays a peasant man in white clothing with a yellow sombrero, struggling on all fours with a dramatically oversized basket of flowers that is strapped to his back with a yellow sling. A woman, most likely the peasant’s wife, stands behind him trying to help with the support of the basket as he attempts to rise to his feet. While the flowers in the basket are strikingly beautiful to the viewer, the man does not see their beauty, but only their value as he carries them to the market for sale or exchange. The geometric shapes offer bold and intense contrasts, with each figure, item, and foliage illustrated to reflect individualism. Some believe that the enormous basket strapped to the man’s back is representative of the encumbrances of an untrained worker in a modern, capitalistic world.

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