El Matemático
by Diego Rivera (1919, Montparnasse, Paris)
original painting, oil on canvas,
in the Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiñ, La Noria, Xochimilco, Mexico
The portret, in room 1 of the museo, displays the French painter (and mathematician), René Paresce (1866-1937), of Italian descendance. Born in Switzerland he grew up in Florence and Palermo and after obtaining a Ph.D. in physics moved to Paris (1912) and later London (1914) to be a foreign correspondent for La Stampa. In 1916 he decided for a career in painting.
Near the end of a long interview in La Jornada (August 2002) by Elena Poniatowska of Dolores Olmedo Patiñ, published in full in La Insignia, there's a reference to the proper identity of El Matemático.
[thanks, jen]
email: a.a.jagers[[at]]misc.utwente.nl