The Italian painter Modigliani, who lived in Paris, and the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who spent time in the French metropolis between 1911 and 1921, were close friends. Modigliani painted several portraits of Rivera, whose voluminous body and round head he depicts here in an open painting style marked by a subtle distribution of dabs of color. This extraordinary portrait entered the collection thanks to a “concerted action” of the North Rhine-Westphalian business community, initiated by the Friends and supported by additional state funds, on the occasion of the opening of the museum’s new building on Grabbeplatz in 1986.