Description
Frieda and Diego Rivera is a double portrait Frida Kahlo painted in 1931, two years after she married the muralist Diego Rivera. He stands on the left, tall and heavy-set, in a dark suit and blue shirt, holding a palette and four brushes in his right hand; beside him she looks slight, in a green skirt and red shawl, her head tilted towards him, and at the centre their hands are joined. At the upper right a dove carries a banner with a dedication in Spanish. The original, oil on canvas, is 100 cm high and 79 cm wide and belongs to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Our painter paints it by hand in oil colours on canvas, in one of 8 portrait sizes from 40 x 49 to 140 x 180 cm or made to measure, and before it ships we send you a photograph of the finished piece.
| Title: | Frieda and Diego Rivera |
| Other titles: | Frieda y Diego Rivera · Frida und Diego Rivera |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1931 |
| Original size: | 100 cm x 79 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Frieda and Diego Rivera – Frida Kahlo
What does Frieda and Diego Rivera show?
A husband and wife stand full length against a smooth greyish wall, on a brown floor. Both look straight out at us, unsmiling.
Diego Rivera fills almost half the canvas. He wears a dark jacket and loose trousers, with a blue shirt and a wide belt underneath and heavy brown shoes on his feet. In his right hand he holds a palette and four brushes, which marks him at once as a painter.
Frida is much smaller at his side. She wears a long green skirt with a ruffled hem and, around her shoulders, a bright red fringed shawl that she holds in front of her with her left hand. Tiny green shoes peep out from under the skirt.
Her right hand rests in his left, and that clasp sits exactly at the centre of the composition. At the upper right a dove flies in, trailing a long, rippling banner covered in handwriting.
What is this wedding portrait about?
The painting was made two years after Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera married in 1929, so it is widely considered a wedding portrait.
The dove’s banner tells us when and for whom the work was made. In short it says: here you see us, me, Frida Kahlo, with my beloved husband Diego Rivera, painted in April 1931 in the lovely city of San Francisco for our friend Albert Bender.
Readings differ. The biographer Hayden Herrera sees in it mainly a wife presenting herself beside a great artist. Margaret Lindauer looks at the wider context in which it was made, and the banner supports her reading, because it casts Frida as the professional painter who created the portrait.
The marriage was not simple: the couple divorced in 1939 and remarried a year later. Frida painted the time of the split in The Two Fridas, where the Mexican Frida holds a tiny portrait of her husband.
Why is this painting so well known?
Self-portraits in which she stands alone dominate Frida Kahlo’s work. Here she stands beside the man she married twice, which makes the painting one of the most personal records of their life together.
It also matters for her path as a painter. When the canvas hung in the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in 1931, Frida took part in an exhibition for the first time.
In public she still presented herself mainly as Rivera’s wife rather than as an artist.
The style is plain and flat, drawn from the Mexican folk art she had taken up in Cuernavaca and kept developing in San Francisco. The background and the readings are summed up in the Wikipedia article (in English).
Where is the original of Frieda and Diego Rivera?
The portrait was commissioned by Albert M. Bender, an art collector and supporter of Rivera, to whom the dedication on the banner is addressed. In 1936 Bender gave it to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in California.
There it forms part of the permanent collection and is generally on public display. The canvas is 100 cm high and 79 cm wide.
Frieda and Diego Rivera or another Kahlo?
Frieda and Diego Rivera is a warm canvas painting made for a couple. It suits a bedroom or a dining room.
Diego returns as a small portrait on her forehead in two later works: Diego and I is a close bust self-portrait with tears on her cheeks, while Diego in My Thoughts shows Frida in a white lace headdress. Frida alone, with a thorn necklace, a monkey and a black cat, is the subject of Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.
Every one of the famous Frida Kahlo paintings we paint to order is listed on the Frida Kahlo page.
How is your Frieda and Diego Rivera painted?
Layer by layer in oil colours, our painter builds the areas that give the work its character: the near-black suit, the pale blue shirt, the glowing red shawl and the green skirt. The colours are clean and the surface smooth, as on the original.
The fine work comes last: the diamond pattern and fringe of the shawl, the links of the chains, the four brushes on the palette and the lines of handwriting on the banner, which the painter copies letter by letter with a thin brush.
What you receive is a Frida Kahlo reproduction with a true oil surface that no print can imitate. Like any oil painting reproduction, it changes with the light in your room: the shawl looks softer in the morning and glows under a lamp at night.
Which size suits your wall?
In short: 40 x 49 or 48 x 60 cm for a narrow wall or above a bedside table, 55 x 70 or 68 x 90 cm above a chest of drawers or in a hallway, 77 x 100 or 99 x 125 cm above a sofa or a bed, and 110 x 145 or 140 x 180 cm for a tall wall or a stairwell.
All 8 portrait sizes (width x height): 40 x 49, 48 x 60, 55 x 70, 68 x 90, 77 x 100, 99 x 125, 110 x 145 and 140 x 180 cm. The nearest to the original is 77 x 100 cm, the same height but 2 cm narrower.
As a painting for the living room above a sofa, 77 x 100 or 99 x 125 cm works well; hang it with the lower edge 20 to 25 cm above the backrest.
Can I order another size or a frame?
Yes. The original is roughly 4 : 5 in proportion, so we can carry it over to an unlisted size without losing the dove and banner or the shoes at the bottom edge. Send us the width and height you want through our paintings made to order page, and we reply with price and timing.
Your painting comes rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed; the stretching and framing are done by our workshop in Slovenia. You choose the frame in our 3D application, which is meant only for that choice, while seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When does the painting arrive, and how is it sent?
After you confirm, we start painting, and within 15 to 45 working days the couple is ready to travel. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished piece, and if you would like a correction, we make it.
Within Slovenia and the rest of the EU the parcel clears no customs, and our returns policy covers every purchase.
Frieda and Diego Rivera makes a lovely present for a wedding, an anniversary or a couple moving into their first home together. If you would rather the couple chose the size, give them a wall art voucher.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the original hang?
At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), to which Albert Bender gave it in 1936.
Who is in the painting?
Frida Kahlo and her husband, the painter Diego Rivera, who holds a palette and brushes in his right hand.
Will I get a print?
No. You receive a hand-painted copy, for which our painter uses brushes and oil colours.
How large is the original?
It is 100 cm high and 79 cm wide; our nearest size, 77 x 100 cm, is just 2 cm narrower.
Can you paint it to my own measurements?
Yes, to the width and height you set, with the price given in advance.
How long will I wait?
Making it takes 15 to 45 working days, then we ship it, with no customs inside the EU.
Would it suit a bedroom?
Very well: it shows a married couple hand in hand, so it looks lovely above a double bed.
What does the banner say?
It is a Spanish dedication: Frida writes that she painted the couple in April 1931 in San Francisco for their friend Albert Bender.
- Subject: Diego Rivera with palette and brushes and a slight Frida in green skirt and red shawl hold hands, with a dove and banner above them.
- Original: 1931, oil on canvas, 100 x 79 cm, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
- Ours: hand-painted oil on canvas in 8 portrait sizes, from 40 x 49 to 140 x 180 cm, or in a size of your choice.
- Worth knowing: with this canvas Frida Kahlo took part in an exhibition for the first time, in San Francisco in 1931.
