Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna by Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera painted "Retrato de Ramón Gómez de la Serna" in Madrid, where both the poet and the artist were central figures to the cultural avant-garde blossoming there in the first decade of the twentieth century. 

While the work partakes cubism, it is by no means an orthodox cubist painting thanks to its bright complementary colors, sgraffito, rough surface rendered with sand, and textured planes rich in material. 

The scene in the writer’s studio explores a plurality of simultaneous temporalities where different actions performed by Gómez de la Serna are layered on top of one another. 

Clad in a suit and checkered tie, Gómez de la Serna is holding his emblematic pipe to his mouth with his left hand. The pen in his right hand suggests he is about to write. 

He is surrounded by distinguishable elements: a triangular inkwell, mostly likely in Talavera ceramic; a Browning pistol from his collection of weapons, whether ancient or unusable; papers; and copies of his books.

The book Greguerías consisted of brief aphorism-like phrases that combine humor and metaphor—"greguerías" were a literary re-source favored by the author.  

Through a window in the upper righthand corner, we see a black plane with chimneys drawn in white, likely a reference to the writer’s nocturnality.