This drawing is one of many studies that Diego Rivera made in conjunction with a mural cycle he painted in 1926 for the Chapel of the Escuela Nacional de Agricultura in Chapingo (just outside Mexico City). Rivera conceived of the didactic program of the chapel’s decoration in two complementary halves: the west wall, which addresses the post-revolutionary shift in land ownership and redistribution, thematically parallels the east wall, which deals with the natural evolution of the earth. Rivera’s fresco "Subterranean Forces", to which this drawing relates, shows a group of symbolic female figures moving up and through the fiery layers of the earth. Rivera dedicated this drawing to American fellow artist Tina Modotti, who began posing for Rivera in 1925.