Portrait of Diego Rivera

Birthday profile

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and educator (died 1957)

Born
December 8, 1886
Died
November 24, 1957
Zodiac sign
Sagittarius
Birth year
1886

About Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo riˈβeɾa]; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City, Chapingo, and Cuernavaca in Mexico, and San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City in the United States. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, shortly before Rivera's commencement of his 27-mural series known as Detroit Industry Murals the next year. Rivera had four wives and numerous children, including at least one illegitimate daughter. His first child and only son died at the age of two. His third wife was fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, with whom he had a volatile relationship that continued until her death. His previous two marriages, ending in divorce, were respectively to a fellow artist and a novelist, and his final marriage was to his agent. Due to his importance in the country's art history, the government of Mexico declared Rivera's works as monumentos históricos. Rivera held the record for highest price at auction for a work by a Latin American artist until November 2021, with his 1931 painting The Rivals. The painting was part of the record-setting collection of Peggy Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, and sold for $9.76 million USD at a 2018 Christie's auction. The 1931 painting The Rivals, part of the record-setting collection of Peggy Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, sold for US$9.76 million at a 2018 Christie's auction. Rivera holds the record for highest price at auction for a work by a Latin American artist.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Diego Rivera timeline

  1. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City, Chapingo, and Cuernavaca in Mexico, and San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City in the United States.
  2. The 1931 painting The Rivals, part of the record-setting collection of Peggy Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, sold for US$9.76 million at a 2018 Christie's auction.

The world when Diego Rivera was born

Diego Rivera was born in 1886. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst professional baseball game under electric lights
  • Top headlineStatue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor
  • Technology milestoneCoca-Cola invented in Atlanta
  • Notable inventionCoca-Cola (originally contained cocaine)
  • World population~1.46B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderGrover Cleveland
  • U.S. population55.6M

1886 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Diego Rivera's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18862026
Population55.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.