José Rivas (1899-1969) Mexican/American, Oil Painting of Anna Sten. Signed bottom right. Anna Sten, born Anna Petrovna Fesak, was an actress of stage and screen in the 1920s and 30s, an artist, an acting studio teacher, and a presenter on television and radio. She was the the first Ukrainian representative in Hollywood, beloved in both the USSR and Europe but less accepted in America, as Samuel Goldwyn attempted to make her "the new Greta Garbo." 

Overall: 34 1/4 X 31 in. 

Sight: 27 1/2 X 24 1/2 in. 

#2678 . 

José Rivas was born March 19th, 1899 in Zacatecas, Mexico, and was the eldest son of the Mexican master artist Candelario Rivas. He received all his training from his father and studied next to him for over twenty years. Developing a strong and detailed classical style in oils, pastels, pen and ink, watercolors, and photography, he won numerous first-place awards in León, in the central state of Guanajuato, Mexico, and on one occasion in Paris, France, before he had even turned twenty. His photographic works depicted natural scenery and are noted for true perspective and outstanding balance of composition. From 1920 through 1923, Rivas worked with his father on two substantial commissions for ceiling and dome murals for Catholic churches in southern Guanajuato. Although early on Rivas was a member of the underground Cristeros Society, the group eventually turned into a radical guerrilla movement, engaging in bloody combat with the newly established Revolutionary government. This led Rivas and his entire family to flee to Los Angeles, California in September of 1923. Most of his art that was completed in Mexico has been lost, but the Rivas family retains several oil and pastel works from this period in their private collection. In 1928 Rivas married María de Jesús Mora, who became his regular muse. The couple relocated to San Francisco where Rivas took up full-time employment with Fox West Coast Theaters and Paramount Pictures, creating life-like oil paintings of famous actors like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, and Spencer Tracy. The couple raised five children and lived the rest of their lives in the Mission district of the city. Rivas became world famous for his large scale promotional murals for movies such as “Mrs. Miniver” and “Gone With The Wind.” During the 1940s he produced many magazine covers and illustrations which were syndicated and appeared in numerous Sunday newspaper supplement magazines such as the Five Star Weekly. Two popular series of covers that he produced during this period were portraits of various Native American tribal members, and a series of beautiful female film stars including Myrna Loy and Anna Sten. A member of the prestigious Society of Western Artists, Rivas also frequently took trips to the Redwood forests and along the coast to indulge in nature photography. For personal fulfillment he liked to paint watercolor seascapes of the docks, marinas, and fishing fleets of San Francisco and surrounding harbor towns and villages. In his final years he opened his home to give workshops on his portraiture techniques, and won a number of commissions for portraits of San Francisco dignitaries, such as Archbishop McGucken. Rivas died of a heart attack shortly after his seventieth birthday on March 22, 1969. He was survived by his wife and four of his children.