This may be a desert scene in New Mexico, but if so the Joshua Trees would be out of place. The drawing is an example of how it doesn’t really matter if the location can be identified because it stands on its own, but where at the same time it’s interesting to try to research more about it. The following is the result of further investigation by the gallerist who sold the work to Aardt’s founder:
“I finally talked to my friend the photography expert and after copying down what he said (phonetically) I was able to find on the internet the location of your drawing, according to him. In 1930 Diego and Frida took a train from Mexico to San Francisco, and that is when he says they passed through New Mexico and Arizona. According to the chronology I have consulted, this would have had to be after November 7 and before November 15, 1930, because he finished the murals in Cuernavaca on the 7th and arrived in San Francisco on the 15th where a large retrospective exhibition (120 works) opened at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. After that Rivera began work on the San Francisco Stock Exchange mural. The mountain is called Pedernal Peak and it is near Abiquiu, NM, an artist’s colony not far from Santa Fe. Georgia O’Keeffe lived in Abiquiu and according to another friend of mine (a former employee who lives in Albuquerque), she took everyone to the Pedernal and there are many photographs of her with famous people and the Pedernal in the background. In fact, her ashes are scattered there.”
