Description
Portrait of Lucha María, a Girl from Tehuacán is a 1942 work by Frida Kahlo: a barefoot girl in a black-and-white jacket sits cross-legged on a bare ochre plain with a toy aeroplane in her lap, under a sky split between a pale moon and a large orange sun, with two pyramids on the horizon. The original, oil on masonite, is 54.6 cm high and 43.2 cm wide and belongs to a private collection in Mexico City. Our painter carries the scene onto canvas, hand-painted in oil, in one portrait size, 40 x 49 cm, a little smaller than the original; you see a photograph of it before we ship.
| Title: | Portrait of Lucha María, a Girl from Tehuacán |
| Other titles: | Retrato de Lucha María, una niña de Tehuacán · Porträt von Lucha María, einem Mädchen aus Tehuacán |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1942 |
| Original size: | 54.6 cm x 43.2 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on masonite |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | Private collection, Mexico City |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 1 sizes or made to measure |
Portrait of Lucha María, a Girl from Tehuacán – Frida Kahlo
What do we see in the Portrait of Lucha María?
In the centre sits a girl with long dark hair, parted in the middle and combed back behind her shoulders. Her dark eyes rest calmly on the viewer, and her face is serious and composed, without a smile.
Over a white blouse she wears a wide jacket patterned in black and white with triangles and zigzags, sharp against her plain white skirt. Her bare feet are crossed, soles turned towards us.
The girl sits on a grey, rock-like mound in a nearly empty plain of ochre and brown. With both hands she holds an olive-green toy aeroplane with paler wings in her lap, its nose jutting out past her left knee.
The sky is cut in two: dark grey-blue clouds bank up around a pale, almost beige moon on the left, while on the right a big orange sun glows out of white clouds.
Two pyramids stand on the horizon: the lower one on the left half disappears into shadow, while the larger, stepped one on the right catches the sunlight.
What is known about its making and meaning?
Who Lucha María was, the sources we use do not say; we know only what the title tells us, that she was a girl from Tehuacán. So we add no story we cannot back up.
In 1942 Kahlo became a founding member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana, twenty-five artists asked by the Ministry of Public Education to spread knowledge of Mexican culture. That year she also showed in two New York exhibitions, one of them a MoMA show of twentieth-century portraits.
Whether this portrait hung in either show, our sources do not record. During the 1940s her health tied her more and more to the Blue House in Coyoacán, and her father had died the year before she painted it.
Why does this portrait hold the eye?
According to Wikipedia, many of her paintings are built on opposites such as pre-modernity and modernity. Here ancient pyramids and a modern aeroplane share one scene, and the sky divides into day and night.
Whether Kahlo meant it that way the article does not say, so we leave the reading to you. Sun and moon are placed so symmetrically that anyone standing before the painting notices them.
Around the world her work is valued as an expression of Mexican national and Indigenous traditions, as the Frida Kahlo article on the English Wikipedia puts it; the article is about the painter, and there is no separate one on this portrait. This girl without jewellery or finery is a quiet scene from everyday Mexico.
Where is the original, and what do we know about it?
The original belongs to a private collection in Mexico City, so no museum can show it to you.
Kahlo painted it in oil on masonite, a smooth, hard board of pressed wood fibres. It measures 54.6 cm high by 43.2 cm wide; year, technique, size and collection come from the list of her works on the English Wikipedia.
In 1984 Mexico declared her works national cultural heritage and banned their export. Your copy differs from the original in one respect: it is painted in oil on canvas, not on hardboard.
Portrait of Lucha María or another Kahlo?
Also from 1942 is Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot, oil on masonite in exactly the same dimensions, 54.6 x 43.2 cm. The two make good companions, one with the girl’s face, the other with the painter’s own.
Another child figure sitting alone on bare ground appears in Four Inhabitants of Mexico City from 1938. If the orange sun draws you in, look at Sun and Life, where the sun itself becomes the main subject.
If you like her portraits of other people, see Two Women (Salvadora and Herminia) as well. The Portrait of Lucha María sits among all the famous Frida Kahlo paintings we paint to order, gathered on our Frida Kahlo page.
How does our painter paint the girl, the sky and the plain?
The original has the smooth, quiet surface that masonite allows, with flat colours kept clearly apart. Our painter primes and sands the canvas in thin coats so the weave does not disturb the girl’s face.
First come the ochre plain and the sky, dark grey-blue on the left, white clouds and the glowing orange sun on the right; the pyramids follow in thin light and shadowed bands.
The jacket asks for the most patience: each black triangle and white zigzag is drawn singly with a fine brush. Skin, eyes and hair grow in thin layers, and the aeroplane gets olive tones with pale edges.
What you receive is a Frida Kahlo reproduction whose layers of oil paint are real and can be felt on the surface. Each Portrait of Lucha María is painted for one buyer alone; none is kept in stock.
Which size for which wall?
In short: 40 x 49 cm is the size for a child’s room, a bedroom, a hallway or a reading corner, where the painting is seen up close.
For this work we offer just one size (width x height), 40 x 49 cm, upright. The original is 43.2 cm wide and 54.6 cm high, roughly 43 x 55 cm, so our painting is 3.2 cm narrower and 5.6 cm shorter than it.
Written the way museum catalogues give it, height first, the original comes to about 55 x 43 cm. Our size is slightly wider in proportion, which hardly shows in this calm, centred composition.
As a painting for the living room it suits a narrow stretch of wall by a bookcase; above a wide sofa it would look lost.
Is another size possible, and which frame should I choose?
If you need different dimensions, tell us the width and height you would like for the girl from Tehuacán. We check whether that size works for this subject and send you a price and a date.
We can send the Portrait of Lucha María rolled in a tube, stretched on a wooden stretcher bar or already framed. Stretching and framing are done by our workshop in Slovenia, just as for every other canvas painting we sell.
You choose the frame in our 3D app, which is meant for frame choice only. Seeing the girl on a photo of your own wall is a separate service, apart from the app.
How long does it take, and how is it delivered?
Once you confirm, the painter needs 15 to 45 working days for the girl with the aeroplane. Before packing we send you a photograph of the finished painting; a change, say to the tone of the sky, is made before dispatch.
The parcel with the Portrait of Lucha María travels within Slovenia and to every other EU country without customs procedures. Our returns policy applies to this order as well.
This portrait is a lovely gift for a godmother or a teacher who loves Mexico. To let them choose for themselves, give a wall art voucher.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original of this painting today?
In a private collection in Mexico City, not in a museum.
What is the girl holding?
A small olive-green toy aeroplane with paler wings, resting in her lap.
Will I get a printed poster of the girl?
No. Our painter paints Lucha María with brush and oil colours on canvas, as an oil painting reproduction; no printing process is used.
How big is the 1942 original?
It is 54.6 cm high and 43.2 cm wide, so a little larger than our 40 x 49 cm size.
Can I order the girl’s portrait larger or smaller?
Send us the dimensions; we check them and quote a price first.
How soon will the painting be with me?
Painting takes 15 to 45 working days, then we ship it; within the EU free of customs.
Is it suitable for a child’s room or as a gift?
Yes. The calm girl with her aeroplane and the sun make a friendly choice for a child’s room or for a lover of Mexico.
What do the sun and the moon mean?
Wikipedia notes that her works often show opposites; it gives no specific reading of this portrait, so we leave that to you.
- Subject: a barefoot girl in a black-and-white jacket with a toy aeroplane, a bare plain, two pyramids, the sun and the moon.
- Original: 1942, oil on masonite, 54.6 x 43.2 cm, private collection, Mexico City.
- Ours: a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, made to your order in one portrait size, 40 x 49 cm.
- Worth knowing: Our size is 3.2 cm narrower and 5.6 cm shorter than the original.
