Description
Self-Portrait (1930) is an early work by Frida Kahlo: she sits on a plain wooden chair in front of a pink wall, wearing a blue blouse with ruffled sleeves and long coral-red earrings. She looks straight at us, serious and unsmiling. The original is oil on canvas, 65 cm high and 54 cm wide, and is now in a private collection in Boston. Our painter copies it for you by hand in oil colours on canvas, in one of 8 portrait sizes between 40 x 49 and 160 x 185 cm or made to measure; before it ships, we send you a photograph of the finished painting.
| Title: | Self-Portrait (1930) |
| Other titles: | Autorretrato · Selbstporträt (1930) |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1930 |
| Original size: | 65 cm x 54 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | Private collection, Boston |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Self-Portrait (1930) – Frida Kahlo
What do we see in Self-Portrait (1930)?
Frida Kahlo shows herself to the waist, seated and turned almost fully towards the viewer. Behind her shoulders rises the back of a wooden chair whose two posts end in round knobs. The background is a pink wall with soft, cloud-like patches.
She wears a short-sleeved blue blouse whose sleeves end in a ruffle. A thin pinkish-violet edging runs round the deep, rounded neckline, and along the lower edge of the canvas a band with a small embroidered pattern comes into view.
Her dark hair is parted in the middle and combed smoothly back, leaving the face entirely open. The eyebrows meet above the bridge of the nose in a single arch, the eyes are large and dark, the cheeks flushed, the lips red and pressed together. Long coral-coloured earrings with a round, openwork pendant hang from her ears.
In the lower right corner a small painted inscription dates the work to January 1930.
When and in what circumstances was it painted?
When she painted this self-portrait, Frida Kahlo was 22 and had been married for only a few months. She had married the muralist Diego Rivera, 21 years her senior, in a civil ceremony at the town hall of Coyoacán on 21 August 1929.
At the end of 1929 the couple moved to Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos, where Rivera had a commission to paint murals in the Palace of Cortés. Life in that city sharpened Kahlo’s sense of Mexican identity, and Mexican folk art became an ever stronger source for her.
Her earliest paintings, from the mid-1920s, show the influence of Renaissance masters and of Amedeo Modigliani; towards the end of the decade she drew more and more on folk art. This self-portrait of January 1930 therefore belongs to the years in which her style was changing.
Late in 1930, with the commission finished, the couple moved on to San Francisco, where Kahlo spent six productive months developing that folk art style further.
Why is this early self-portrait worth knowing?
Frida Kahlo is known above all for her self-portraits, and most of her paintings are fairly small. This is one of the early ones, yet it already carries the features she would paint again and again: the brows joined above the nose, the dark eyes that never look away and the grave, closed mouth.
For more on her life, her style and the part folk art played in it, see the Wikipedia article on the painter (in English). This self-portrait has no article of its own.
Where is the original today?
The original is not part of any museum collection. Wikipedia’s list of paintings by Frida Kahlo gives it as belonging to a private collection in Boston.
Kahlo painted it in oil on canvas, the same materials our painter works with.
The 1930 self-portrait or another Kahlo?
The pink wall and blue blouse give the work a fresh, quiet tone, so this canvas painting sits well in a bedroom, a home office or a bright entrance hall.
To see how Kahlo painted herself four years earlier, look at Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress of 1926, in a dark red velvet dress before a dark sea. A year after this self-portrait, the double portrait Frieda and Diego Rivera was painted in San Francisco.
The later Kahlo, surrounded by green leaves, a monkey and a cat, appears in Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird. With long hair hanging loose and an embroidered blouse, you find her in Self-Portrait with Loose Hair of 1947.
Every one of the famous Frida Kahlo paintings we offer is listed together on the Frida Kahlo page.
How is your copy of the self-portrait made?
Kahlo worked here with clean outlines and fairly flat fields of colour, on a smooth surface without thick paint. Our painter keeps that smoothness and works as she did, in oil colours on canvas.
He first lays in the pink wall with its cloudy transitions and the brown chair with both knobs in thin layers. Then he builds up the blue blouse, where every fold needs the right balance of dark and light blue for the cloth to look soft.
The face and neck take the most patience: the warm, yellowish skin tones, the flushed cheeks, the shadows along the collarbones and the brows joined in one arch. Last comes the smallest work, the openwork coral earrings, the edge of the neckline and the embroidered band at the bottom.
The result is a Frida Kahlo reproduction with real layers of paint, which you can even see in raking light. A print has none of those layers. Like any oil painting reproduction, it changes with the daylight: in the morning the pink wall is warmer, in the evening the blue of the blouse deepens.
Which size for which wall?
In short: 40 x 49 or 46 x 55 cm for a narrow wall or a hallway, 60 x 75 or 68 x 85 cm above a desk or a chest of drawers, 90 x 103 or 110 x 135 cm above a bed or a sofa, and 124 x 150 or 160 x 185 cm for a tall wall or a stairwell.
We paint this self-portrait in 8 portrait sizes (width x height): 40 x 49, 46 x 55, 60 x 75, 68 x 85, 90 x 103, 110 x 135, 124 x 150 and 160 x 185 cm. Closest to the original is 60 x 75 cm, which is 6 cm wider and 10 cm taller.
Because Kahlo is shown to the waist and looks straight ahead, hang the painting roughly at eye level so that your gaze meets hers. As a painting for the living room above a sofa, 90 x 103 or 110 x 135 cm works well.
Is another size or a frame possible?
The original is roughly 5 : 6 in proportion. If you need a size that is not on the list, write to us with the width and height and we reply with a price and a delivery time.
You can have it rolled, stretched on a wooden stretcher bar or ready framed, with the stretching and framing done by our workshop in Slovenia. Frames are picked in our 3D app, a tool made for that choice alone; a preview of the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will the painting arrive?
Your confirmation is our signal to pick up the brushes; from then on, allow 15 to 45 working days. When the self-portrait is finished we send you a photograph of it; if you want something changed, we do it before shipping.
Delivery to Slovenia and every other country of the European Union involves no customs formalities. Should the painting not win you over, our returns policy applies.
The calm face in the blue blouse is a lovely present for someone who loves Mexico or strong portraits of women. If you do not know the right size, a wall art voucher is the simplest answer, as it lets them choose the size themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original kept?
In a private collection in Boston, not in a museum.
What does the painting show?
Frida Kahlo to the waist, in a blue blouse with coral earrings, on a wooden chair in front of a pink wall.
Is it a print?
No, you receive a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, made by the painter specially for you.
How big is the original?
It is 65 cm high and 54 cm wide; our nearest size is 60 x 75 cm.
Can I get it in a different size?
Yes, besides the 8 sizes offered we paint it to your own measurements, with the price given in advance.
How long does delivery take?
Painting takes 15 to 45 working days, and within the EU the parcel does not go through customs.
Is it suitable for a bedroom?
Yes, the soft pink and quiet blue sit well in a bedroom or a home office.
What does this self-portrait mean?
Wikipedia gives no particular reading of it; it was painted soon after her marriage to Rivera, as Kahlo turned more and more to folk art.
- Subject: Frida Kahlo to the waist, in a blue blouse with coral earrings, seated on a wooden chair before a pink wall.
- Original: 1930, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, private collection, Boston.
- Ours: oil on canvas, painted by hand to your order, in 8 portrait sizes (40 x 49 to 160 x 185 cm) or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: the inscription in the lower right corner dates the work to January 1930, a few months after her marriage to Diego Rivera.
