“I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”
Frida Kahlo – hand-painted paintings in oil on canvas
At SvetSlik.si you can order 7 paintings by Frida Kahlo as hand-painted oil reproductions on canvas, painted by our own painters. Every painting comes in several sizes – 42 formats across the gallery, from 40 x 49 cm to 180 x 180 cm – or in a custom size you give us, and prices start at 120 €. Each canvas is painted to order, delivery takes 15 to 45 working days, and before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting for your approval.
The words at the top of this text are Frida Kahlo’s own, as TIME magazine printed them on 27 April 1953, a year before she died. They were her answer to everyone who saw dreams in her paintings: she painted herself, her body, her pain and her Mexico.
Frida Kahlo’s periods – and what you will find in our gallery
Marriage and the first large paintings (1931–1939)
Frida Kahlo married the painter Diego Rivera in 1929 and travelled with him through Mexico and the United States. In 1931 in San Francisco she painted Frieda and Diego Rivera, widely seen as their wedding portrait: a towering Rivera with his palette and a slight Frida in a green dress hold hands. In 1937 came the Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, where she stands between two curtains drawn aside, and in 1939, the year of the divorce, The Two Fridas, her first large-scale work, with two Fridas whose hearts are joined by a vein.
The self-portraits of the 1940s (1940–1946)
In 1940 she married Rivera a second time. That same year she painted the Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, with a necklace of thorns, a dead hummingbird, a black cat and a monkey. In 1943 followed Diego in My Thoughts, where the white lace headdress of the women of Tehuantepec frames her face and a small portrait of Diego sits on her forehead. In 1946, after an operation on her spine, she painted The Wounded Deer: a young deer with her own face, pierced by nine arrows.
The late years (1949–1954)
From 1949 comes Diego and I, one of the last bust-length self-portraits she completed, with tears on her cheeks and Diego’s portrait on her forehead. Her first solo exhibition in Mexico opened in 1953, and she died a year later, aged 47.
The most famous Frida Kahlo paintings at SvetSlik.si
The best known is The Two Fridas, one of the most famous paintings in Mexican art. For the home many choose the Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, her best-known face, or the gentler wedding portrait Frieda and Diego Rivera.
Which Frida Kahlo painting suits which room?
Frida Kahlo’s paintings have strong colours and clear outlines, so they hold their own even on a coloured wall. The large, almost square The Two Fridas needs a wide wall in a living or dining room. Small originals such as The Wounded Deer and Diego and I suit a bedroom, a study or a hallway; every size we paint is larger than the original. Choose a painting about two thirds as wide as the furniture below it, with its centre about 150 cm from the floor.
Sizes, prices, custom size, stretcher and frame
Each painting has its own range of sizes, matched to the proportions of the original, and the product page shows the price of every size. Across the gallery there are 42 formats, from 40 x 49 cm to 180 x 180 cm, and prices start at 120 €. Some paintings come in fewer sizes: the Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, for example, in three. If your wall needs a different measurement, send us the width and height: we paint to your own size. We send the painting rolled, stretched on a wooden stretcher bar or framed; you choose the frame in our 3D application, which is only for that. For a gift, there is the wall art voucher.
How we hand-paint a Frida Kahlo
Every painting is painted by hand in oil on canvas, layer by layer, following a high-resolution photograph of the original. With Frida Kahlo our painter first lays in areas of pure, strong colour, then draws the face, the eyebrows, the flowers, the leaves and the animals with a fine brush. Several of her originals are painted on masonite board; our painting is always on canvas. If something in the final photograph is not right, we correct it before dispatch.
Frida Kahlo in brief
Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, on the edge of Mexico City, and spent most of her life in the family’s Blue House (La Casa Azul), now the Frida Kahlo Museum. She had polio as a child, and at 18 a bus accident left her in pain for the rest of her life. She drew on Mexican folk culture, and in 1939 the Louvre bought her painting The Frame. Read more in the Frida Kahlo biography.
Frequently asked questions
Which are Frida Kahlo’s most famous paintings?
The most famous are The Two Fridas, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, The Wounded Deer and Frieda and Diego Rivera. All of them are available in our gallery as hand-painted oil paintings.
Why did Frida Kahlo paint so many self-portraits?
After the accident she spent long periods in bed and in hospital, and the model closest to hand was herself. Most of her paintings are self-portraits of a relatively small size.
Was Frida Kahlo a Surrealist?
André Breton claimed her for the Surrealists and helped bring about her exhibitions in New York and Paris, but she rejected the label. She painted her own life and the folk culture of Mexico.
Where can you see Frida Kahlo’s original paintings?
The Two Fridas is in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, Frieda and Diego Rivera in SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky in the NMWA in Washington. Her Blue House in Coyoacán is open to visitors.
How much does a Frida Kahlo painting cost?
The originals are in museums and private collections. A hand-painted copy in oil on canvas from SvetSlik.si starts at 120 €, depending on the painting and the size. It is a real painting, not a print.
Which paintings show Diego Rivera too?
In the wedding portrait Frieda and Diego Rivera they stand side by side, and in Diego and I and Diego in My Thoughts she wears his small portrait on her forehead.
Which size should I choose?
Measure the furniture below the wall and choose a painting about two thirds of its width. Every painting’s page lists all its sizes with their prices, and if none fits, we paint your own measurements.
How long does delivery take, and can I order a custom size?
Each painting is painted to order, so delivery takes 15 to 45 working days. A custom size is possible for every painting, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished painting.