Description
Self-Portrait with Bonito is a 1941 painting in which Frida Kahlo shows herself from the shoulders up in a black top, while a green parrot with a yellow head, named Bonito in the title, perches on her shoulder at the left of the canvas. Behind her a screen of large green and yellowish leaves rises against a blue sky, with a butterfly resting at the upper right and caterpillars crawling over the leaves. The original, oil on canvas, is 55 cm high and 43.4 cm wide and is in a private collection in the United States. Our painter recreates it for you in oil colours on canvas in one of two portrait sizes, 40 x 49 or 48 x 60 cm, and sends you a photograph of the finished work before it leaves us.
| Title: | Self-Portrait with Bonito |
| Other titles: | Autorretrato con Bonito · Selbstporträt mit Bonito |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1941 |
| Original size: | 55 cm x 43.4 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | Private collection, United States |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 2 sizes or made to measure |
Self-Portrait with Bonito – Frida Kahlo
What does Self-Portrait with Bonito show?
Kahlo painted herself from the shoulders up, her head turned a little to the right and her dark eyes looking calmly back at us. Her brows join above the nose in a single dark line, her lips are red and firmly closed, and a light shadow is painted above the upper lip.
Her braided hair is wound high around her head in thick, glossy coils, like a dark crown. She wears a plain black garment with a round neckline, which melts into the darkness at the bottom edge of the canvas.
On the left of the picture, at her shoulder, sits the parrot: green-feathered and yellow-headed, with a pale hooked beak and an orange eye. Its feathers are laid down one by one like overlapping scales, with a touch of red on the wing.
The background is a wall of broad oval leaves in every green from lemon-yellow to olive, with patches of blue sky between them. At the upper right a butterfly with green and dark wings rests on a leaf, and lower down caterpillars crawl along the foliage.
What was happening in her life in 1941?
In December 1940 Kahlo and Diego Rivera married for the second time, a year after their divorce.
In April 1941 her father, Guillermo Kahlo, died, and his death plunged her into depression. Ill health tied her more and more to La Casa Azul, the Blue House in Coyoacán, where friends, servants and animals kept her company, among them spider monkeys, Xoloitzcuintli dogs and parrots.
Why do Kahlo’s admirers single out this self-portrait?
Wikipedia explains that in most of her self-portraits Kahlo painted her face like a mask and surrounded it with visual cues from which the viewer can read deeper meanings. Here those cues are the parrot on her shoulder and the butterfly and caterpillars among the leaves.
The article also notes that after her separation from Rivera she moved from small tin sheets to canvases and painted more quarter-length portraits, which were easier to sell.
The English Wikipedia article on Frida Kahlo is about the painter; there is no separate article on this painting and no reading of its insects or its bird.
Where is the original, and what do we know about it?
The original belongs to a private collection in the United States. Our sources do not name the owner, and neither do we.
Kahlo painted it in oil on canvas, 55 cm high and 43.4 cm wide. Year, technique, size and collection come from the list of her works on the English Wikipedia, which does not say how the painting came to be in the United States.
Because the original is itself on canvas, the hand-painted copy you order from us is made on the same kind of support, in oil paint built up layer by layer.
Self-Portrait with Bonito or another Kahlo?
Parrots appear more than once in her work. In Me and My Parrots she gathers several of them around her, and in Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot, painted in 1942, a parrot shares the scene with a monkey.
If you like small creatures framing her face, look at Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird from 1940, which Wikipedia counts among the best-known works of that period. Another animal companion stands beside her in Itzcuintli Dog with Me.
Our whole range of famous Frida Kahlo paintings, all painted to order, is on the Frida Kahlo page.
How does our painter handle the parrot, the leaves and the butterfly?
The original is painted on canvas in thin, even layers, so the surface looks smooth rather than heavily brushed. Our painter therefore prepares the canvas with several thin coats of primer until the weave hardly shows through.
The blue sky and the large leaf shapes go down first; then each leaf gets a lighter edge, a darker centre and a fine central vein.
The parrot is built up feather by feather: a dark green base, lighter tips overlapping like scales, and finally the yellow head and the orange eye.
The butterfly and the caterpillars are painted with the finest brush once the background has dried, so the markings on the wings stay crisp.
The result is a Frida Kahlo reproduction in which Bonito’s feathers and the leaf veins rise very slightly from the layers of oil paint.
Which of the two sizes fills your wall better?
In short: 40 x 49 cm for a bedroom, a hallway or a work corner, 48 x 60 cm for a larger room or the wall above a chest of drawers.
For Self-Portrait with Bonito we offer just two portrait sizes (width x height): 40 x 49 cm and 48 x 60 cm. The original measures about 43 x 55 cm, so the smaller size is 3.4 cm narrower and 6 cm lower than it, and the larger one is 4.6 cm wider and 5 cm taller.
As a painting for the living room the larger size works better, hung at eye level above a sofa or beside a bookcase, where the greens and blues still read from a few metres away.
Choose the smaller size for a spot you see from close by, next to a bed or above a desk, where you can make out the caterpillars and the pattern on the butterfly’s wings.
Can I order a different size or a frame?
If your wall needs another width or height, send us a custom size request; we check whether Self-Portrait with Bonito can be painted in those dimensions and reply with a price and a delivery time.
We can send the canvas painting rolled, stretched on a wooden stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia stretches and frames the Bonito canvas when you ask for it.
You choose the frame for Bonito in our 3D app, which is made for frame selection only. Seeing the painting on a photo of your own wall is a separate service and has nothing to do with the app.
How long does it take, and how is it delivered?
Once you confirm the order, the painter starts work and finishes Self-Portrait with Bonito within 15 to 45 working days. Before we pack it, we send you a photograph of the finished painting, and if you would like anything changed, the painter adjusts it before dispatch.
Between Slovenia and the other member states of the European Union there are no customs duties or forms. Our returns policy applies to this order just as to any other.
A green parrot and a butterfly make a cheerful subject for someone who loves birds, gardens or Mexican art. If you are unsure of the right size or of the wall it will hang on, give a wall art voucher instead and let them choose.
Frequently asked questions
Is the original on show in a museum?
Not as far as our sources say: it is in a private collection in the United States, and no museum is named.
Who is Bonito?
As the title tells us, Bonito is the parrot on her shoulder, green with a yellow head.
Is this a print?
No. It is an oil painting reproduction worked with brushes on canvas from the first stroke to the last.
How large is the 1941 original?
It is 55 cm high and 43.4 cm wide; our smaller size is a little smaller, the larger a little bigger.
Can I have Bonito in another size?
Send us the width and height you want; we tell you whether it can be done and quote a price before you order.
How soon will the painting arrive?
Painting takes 15 to 45 working days; then we ship it, with no customs within the EU.
Is it a good choice for a bedroom or as a present?
Yes. The greenery and the parrot give a calm, fresh feel, and the smaller size fits well beside a bed.
What do the butterfly and the caterpillars mean?
Wikipedia does not explain them; it only says her self-portraits surround the face with cues that viewers read for themselves.
- Subject: Frida Kahlo from the shoulders up in black, with the green parrot Bonito at her shoulder and large leaves, a butterfly and caterpillars behind.
- Original: 1941, oil on canvas, 55 x 43.4 cm, private collection, United States.
- Ours: hand-painted in oil on canvas to your order, in two portrait sizes: 40 x 49 or 48 x 60 cm.
- Worth knowing: The smaller size is slightly smaller than the original, the larger slightly bigger; neither equals it.
