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Danzante

Half-length portrait of a man with long, dark hair. He wears a white long-sleeved shirt and pale pink cape, edged with yellow fringe, and is strumming a ukulele-like, instrument. He wears an elaborate headdress capped with six large, fanned-out ostrich feathers in blue, teal, red, gold, purple, and orange.

Half-length portrait of a man with long, dark hair. He wears a white long-sleeved shirt and pale pink cape, edged with yellow fringe, and is strumming a ukulele-like, instrument. He wears an elaborate headdress capped with six large, fanned-out ostrich feathers in blue, teal, red, gold, purple, and orange.

Artist Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957)
Title Danzante
Date 1947
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions Overall: 59 1/2 x 49 1/2 in. (151.1 x 125.7 cm)
Framed: 60 3/4 × 50 5/8 × 2 1/16 in. (154.3 × 128.6 × 5.2 cm)
Credit Line Gift of Samuel and Cecyle Stone, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 78.30

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About this Work

This portrait depicts Don Jésus Robles, who worked for Rivera at his home in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán. Robles’ feathered headdress and armadillo-shell lute identify him as a conchero, a member of a religious society dedicated to preserving traditional Mexican dance, music, and costume. Here, Robles is dressed for a concheros dance performed on December 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint. The bold, bright colors and clearly delineated composition highlight Rivera‘s skills as a mural painter. At the time he painted Danzante, Rivera was also occupied with his mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda, a commission from the Hotel del Prado in Mexico City.


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Danzante | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=78.30