Delfina y Dimas depicts with great tenderness the housemaid Delfina Rosas embracing her small son, Dimas. Delfina worked in the Rivera household and there are several paintings for which she served as the model. It is clear that Rivera has considerable regard for this woman, who is portrayed not with detachment, as was frequently the case with peasant subjects he observed in the markets or the countryside, but with considerable empathy and attention to detail. Rivera served as the godfather for Dimas and this child was later depicted by Rivera’s wife, Frida Kahlo.
- Galería Central de Arte, Mexico City (Misrachi), 1935
- Collection of Mrs. James Henle, New York, 1935
- By descent to Mr. Guy Henle, Scarsdale, New York
- By descent to his son, Richard Henle
- Mary-Anne Martin|Fine Art, New York, 1994
- Private Collection, New York, 1994 to the present
- Bertram D. Wolfe, Portrait of Mexico, New York, 1937, plate 42, illus.
- Hans F. Secker, Diego Rivera, Dresden, 1957, plate 231, illus.
- Bernard S. Myers, Mexican Painting in our Time, Oxford University; 1956, illus. n. 79 p. 181
- Selden Rodman, “Full of Vigor and Contradiction, Mexican Painting in our Time,” New York Times Book Review, Jan. 6, 1957, illus. p.7
- “Los Ninos Mexicanos Pintados por Diego Rivera,” ARTES DE MEXICO, N. 27, Vol V, Ano VII / 1959, illus. n.35
- Helga Prignitz-Poda, Frida Kahlo, Das Gesamtwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1988, illus.
- Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Diego Rivera Catalogo General de Obra de Caballete, Mexico, 1989, no.1166, illus.
- Prentice Hall, Literature/Silver (The Pearl by John Steinbeck), Englewood Cliffs; 1989, p. 699, illus. in color
- Harcourt Brace Janovich, Adventures in Appreciation (The Pearl by John Steinbeck), Orlando;1989. illus. in color, p.824
- Salomon Grimberg, Frida Kahlo, The Still Lifes, Merrell Publishers Limited, 2008, illus. in black and white, p. 44
- Mexico, Museo Nacional de Artes Plasticas, INBA, Diego Rivera, 50 Años de su labor artistica, 1949, no. 528, illus. (credit: Private Collector, New York)
- Mexico, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera, Sept. – Nov., 1983
- Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Diego Rivera: A Retrospective, Feb.10 – April 27, 1986. Fig. 195, illus. in color.
This exhibition traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia - Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum, La Exposición Renacimiento en el Arte Mexicano, May 27 – July 1, 1989, illus. in color.
This exhibition traveled to Seibu Museum of Art, Tokya and the Fukuoka City Art Museum - Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, INBA. Diego Rivera, Arte y Revolucion (Art and Revolution), Dec. 1999-March 2000. Illus. in color p. 339 in both English and Spanish catalogues.
This work was exhibited only in the Los Angeles venue at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, May 30-Aug. 16, 1999.
