Montserrat

Montserrat from 1911 is a Cubist painting from Diego Rivera's (1886-1957) Parisian period, when he was working in the Cubist manner that he had adopted under the influence of Picasso and Braque. The subject of Montserrat—the mountain near Barcelona that is the site of the famous monastery—allows Rivera to combine the Cubist fragmentation of form with the Catalan landscape subject that would connect this painting to both the Cubist revolution and Rivera's Mexican heritage. The 1911 date places this in Rivera's most productive Cubist period, when he was painting alongside Picasso and Braque in Paris before his return to Mexico and the development of the mural manner that would define his mature work.

Montserrat is important in Rivera's early development because it demonstrates the Cubist manner from which his later mural style would emerge. The 1911 painting shows Rivera working in the Cubist manner alongside Picasso and Braque in Paris, before his return to Mexico and the development of the monumental mural style that would define his career. The painting is a document of Rivera's Parisian period—the phase of his career that connects him to the European avant-garde before his transformation into Mexico's greatest muralist.

Montserrat is Rivera's Parisian Cubism: the Catalan mountain rendered in the Cubist fragmentation of form that he learned from Picasso and Braque in Paris. The 1911 painting connects the future muralist to the European avant-garde, before his return to Mexico and the monumental mural style that would define his career.