Description
Landscape (El Pedregal) is a small painting Frida Kahlo made in 1946: a broken field of hardened lava south of Mexico City, with dark rocks, a cactus and a cloudy sky, and not a single human figure. The original, oil on canvas, is only 20 cm high and 27 cm wide and is kept at the Frida Kahlo Museum, the Blue House (La Casa Azul) in Coyoacán. Our painter copies it for you in oil colours on canvas, in one of 6 landscape-format sizes from 53 x 38 to 98 x 70 cm; all of them are larger than the original, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work.
| Title: | Landscape (El Pedregal) |
| Other titles: | Paisaje · Landschaft (El Pedregal) |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1946 |
| Original size: | 20 cm x 27 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | Frida Kahlo Museum (La Casa Azul), Coyoacán |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 6 sizes or made to measure |
Landscape (El Pedregal) – Frida Kahlo
What does Landscape (El Pedregal) show?
A stony plain runs all the way to the horizon. The ground is ochre yellow and olive green, cut through by brown and almost black ridges of lava, with patches of bluish grey glinting here and there between them.
In the middle of the scene a large dark hollow opens up, and inside it pale, curved strokes recall ribs, as if the remains of a skeleton lay in the stone. Our sources do not explain it, so we leave the reading to you.
Along the left edge grows a cactus with flat oval pads, like those of a prickly pear. Below it lies a white, rounded stone in which eyes, a nose and a mouth can be made out, so that it looks like a face half sunk into the rock.
The upper band is a sky of dense white and grey clouds with pale blue showing through. Above the left part of the horizon hangs a darker, almost greenish grey cloud that gives the scene weight.
At what point in her life was this plain painted?
1946 was a hard year for Frida Kahlo. In June 1945 she had undergone an operation in New York meant to straighten her spine with a bone graft and a steel support; according to Wikipedia, it failed.
By the mid-1940s she could no longer sit or stand for long without a break, and the Blue House in Coyoacán became the centre of her world.
That same year she won a national prize for her painting Moses, which eased her finances. It was also the year of works that, as Wikipedia puts it, reflect her failing health, among them The Wounded Deer.
This landscape is different: the artist is absent, and only stony ground under clouds remains. Where exactly she painted it, and on what occasion, our sources do not say.
Why does this painting stand out among her works?
Frida Kahlo is known above all for her self-portraits; Wikipedia notes that most of her works were self-portraits of relatively small size, so a landscape with no figure at all stands apart in her output.
Her reputation, Wikipedia says, grew mostly after her death, especially from the late 1970s, and Tate Modern today counts her among the most significant artists of the twentieth century. Her life is covered in the Frida Kahlo article on the English Wikipedia; it is about the painter, and there is no separate article on this landscape.
Where can you see the original?
The original is held by the Frida Kahlo Museum in the Blue House in Coyoacán, where the artist spent most of her childhood and adult life. The house has been a museum since 1958 and, according to Wikipedia, is one of the most popular museums in Mexico City.
Year, technique, size and location come from the English Wikipedia list of Kahlo’s works; how the painting reached the museum is not recorded there.
Our hand-painted copy is also made in oil on canvas, just like the original, only larger.
Landscape (El Pedregal) or another Kahlo?
This canvas painting is built on earth colours: ochre, olive, brown and grey-blue sit well with wood, linen, brick or stone. With no face looking out, it suits a home office, a hallway or a dining room.
From the same year, 1946, comes The Wounded Deer, which Wikipedia lists among the works that mirror her declining health.
Volcanic stone returns in Pitahayas, where red fruits lie on a rock under a stormy sky, and the cactus takes centre stage in Cactus Fruits, with three spiny fruits on a white plate.
Mexican soil with a ruined pyramid and rooted plants also appears in Self-Portrait on the Border of Mexico and the United States. The Frida Kahlo page brings together all the famous Frida Kahlo paintings we can paint for you.
How does our painter paint the stony plain?
The original is not as smooth as her portraits on tin. The brushstrokes are broad and visible, the edges of the rocks soft, and the colours laid one over another, so the ground looks grainy and rough.
Our painter starts with the sky and the horizon, then builds the ground in several layers: first the dark veins of lava, then the ochre and olive areas, and last the bluish lights that give the stone a cool sheen.
The most care goes into the central hollow with its pale, rib-like strokes and the white stone with a face beside the cactus. These are painted with a finer brush and left as open as they are in the original.
The result is a Frida Kahlo reproduction in which every stroke is real oil paint.
Which size suits which wall?
The answer in one sentence: 53 x 38 or 60 x 43 cm for a shelf, a hallway or above a bedside table, 65 x 50 or 74 x 55 cm above a desk or a chest of drawers, and 87 x 62 or 98 x 70 cm above a sofa or a bed.
For this work we offer only 6 landscape-format sizes (width x height): 53 x 38, 60 x 43, 65 x 50, 74 x 55, 87 x 62 and 98 x 70 cm. All of them are larger than the 27 x 20 cm original; the nearest, 53 x 38 cm, is 26 cm wider and 18 cm taller.
As a painting for the living room above the sofa, 87 x 62 or 98 x 70 cm works best: the wide plain then opens across the wall and reads from a distance like a window onto open country.
Is another size possible, and which frame should I choose?
The sides of the original are roughly in a 4 : 3 ratio. If you need a size that is not on the list, send us the width and height; we will check whether it can be done and reply with a price and a deadline.
The lava plain can travel to you rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or already in its frame, and our workshop in Slovenia handles the stretching and framing.
You pick the frame in our 3D app, which is there for choosing frames only. Seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service and not part of the app.
When will the painting reach you, and how is it shipped?
The painter starts as soon as you confirm; from then until dispatch takes 15 to 45 working days. When the painting is finished we send you a photograph of it, and if you would like a change, the painter makes it before packing.
The parcel leaves only after you have seen that photograph. Between Slovenia and the other EU countries there are no customs formalities, and our returns policy covers every order.
Landscape (El Pedregal) suits someone who loves Mexico, stony country or a quieter side of Frida Kahlo. If you do not know the wall it will hang on, a wall art voucher lets the recipient pick the size.
Frequently asked questions
Which museum has the original?
The Frida Kahlo Museum, the Blue House in Coyoacán that was once the artist’s home.
Are there any people in the painting?
No, only lava, rocks, a cactus, a white stone with a face and a cloudy sky.
Do I get a print, or an oil painting reproduction made by hand?
You get a painting worked with brush and oil colours on canvas, layer after layer.
How large is the original?
It is 20 cm high and 27 cm wide, smaller than our smallest size.
Can the lava plain be painted in a size that is not among the six?
Send us the width and height; we will tell you whether it is possible and what it costs.
How many days until the painting arrives?
Painting takes 15 to 45 working days, then shipping follows, with no customs inside the EU.
Does it suit a home office, and is it a good gift?
Yes, the calm earth tones suit a home office or a hallway, and a voucher works as a gift too.
What does the name El Pedregal mean?
It is the name of the hardened lava country south of Mexico City that the painting shows.
- Subject: the stony plain of El Pedregal with a dark hollow, a cactus, a white stone with a face and a cloudy sky.
- Original: 1946, oil on canvas, 20 x 27 cm, Frida Kahlo Museum (La Casa Azul), Coyoacán.
- Ours: oil on canvas, painted by hand to your order, in 6 landscape-format sizes from 53 x 38 to 98 x 70 cm.
- Worth knowing: The original is tiny: even our smallest size is almost twice as wide.
