Self Portrait With Thorn Necklace
1940

Oil on canvas
25" x 19 ½" 

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who is known best for her self-portraits.

Kahlo's life began and ended in Mexico City, in her home known as the Blue House. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

Kahlo had a volatile marriage with the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many caused by a traffic accident she survived as a teenager. Recovering from her injuries isolated her from other people, and this isolation influenced her works, many of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo suggested, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best'.

Kahlo faces the viewer with her head and shoulders taking up much of the space. She is surrounded by green leaves of similar size and shape with one yellow leaf behind her head. On the left side of the painting a spider monkey holds a piece of the thorns that encircle her neck. There are several drops of blood on her neck from the piercing thorns. A black cat looks over her other shoulder. A black hummingbird hangs from the thorns with its beak in the hollow of her throat. Her hair is piled with a purple textile into a figure eight-like design with two butterfly-like creatures with lace wings visible on either side. Two creatures fly above her head with a flower body and dragonfly wings. Kahlo's expression is solemn and appears to be patiently enduring pain. Her focus is inward and not engaging with the viewer.

A rounded arched shape is repeated throughout the composition. It is seen in the wings of the hummingbird, the shapes on the leaves, the mustache, the eyebrows, the hair braid, and in the wings of the insects. The portrait uses symmetrical balance with Kahlo placed in the center of the composition, the bird position, the eyebrows, the mustache, and the hair part all dividing the figure into two symmetrical halves. The environment is less symmetrical with two different creatures behind her shoulders and the more random placement of leaves and the contrast of the yellow leaf behind her head. The background uses mostly cool colors. The color on the figure is mostly warm with very pink cheeks and red lips. Her neck appears uncomfortably long. The repeated arched shape unifies the work by connecting the figure to the environment. The placement of the hummingbird is unusual and draws attention to Kahlo's facial expression.

The unusual creatures and placement of the figure in the environment suggest that Kahlo is not painting a purely realistic scene, but is arranging symbolic elements to communicate a feeling or idea. A bird often symbolizes freedom and a hummingbird is often thought to be colorful and hovering above a flower, yet this bird is black, lifeless, and tied to her necklace of thorns. Frida Kahlo spent much of her life in physical pain after a streetcar accident at age fifteen which resulted in thirty five operations to try to repair her body. In her recovery she was often confined to her bed. She could not have children, but she did have several pet monkeys that were her beloved companions. Kahlo painted many self-portraits often with animals surrounding her.

This painting makes me feel upset because it shows how much pain Frida Kahlo has suffered, even though it ended like that, Kahlo's seemed to be a very strong artists and whatever accident or reason Kahlo's had, art would not be given up, Kahlo's has been painting at home, in her own time.

This piece of work is very powerful, it is showing us a lot about Frida Kahlo's past and how Kahlo's lived, suffered a lot of pain from a divorce with Diego Rivera and couldn't seem to get over him, Kahlo's was also alone most of the time, hence why the art work Frida Kahlo's has painted was mostly self-portraits.