Description
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird is a 1940 work by Frida Kahlo: the painter looks straight at us, a necklace of thorns is wound round her throat with a dead black hummingbird hanging from it as a pendant, a spider monkey leans in over one shoulder and a black cat over the other. Two dragonflies hover above her head, butterfly clips sit in her pinned-up hair, and behind her rises a dense wall of large green leaves. The original, oil on canvas, measures about 61 x 46 cm (height x width) and belongs to the Nickolas Muray collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. Our painters make it by hand in oil colours on canvas in three portrait sizes, 40 x 49, 45 x 60 or 51 x 67 cm, and before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished self-portrait.
| Title: | Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird |
| Other titles: | Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas y Colibrí · Selbstporträt mit Dornenhalsband und Kolibri |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1940 |
| Original size: | approx. 61 cm x 46 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin (Nickolas Muray collection) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 3 sizes or made to measure |
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird – Frida Kahlo
What does Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird show?
Frida Kahlo painted herself from the chest up, strictly frontal, with a face that gives away no feeling. She meets our eyes directly, her dark brows almost join above her nose. She wears a plain white blouse, and her hair is braided into a crown and threaded with a violet ribbon.
Round her neck winds a band of dry, thorny twigs that spreads over her chest like the roots of a tree. The thorns dig into her skin, leaving small wounds and drops of blood. In the middle hangs a black hummingbird with outstretched wings, stiff and plainly dead.
On her right shoulder, which is the left side of the canvas, sits a black spider monkey, eyes on its own hands, playing with the thorny branch. Above her left shoulder a black cat with pale, ice-blue eyes and pricked ears peers out of the foliage.
Two dragonflies with see-through wings hover over her head, and just below them two silver butterfly clips sit in her hair. Broad green leaves fill the background, with only a little pale sky showing at the top.
What do the thorns, the hummingbird and the animals mean?
Kahlo painted it in 1940, after her divorce from the muralist Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with the photographer Nickolas Muray. Scholars see her self-portraits as therapy, a separate Frida onto whom she could project anguish and pain.
In Mexican folklore a dead hummingbird is considered a good luck charm for falling in love. Another reading takes it as a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. The cat is said to stand for bad luck and death, the monkey for evil.
Rivera had given Kahlo a spider monkey, so some read the animal as his symbol: it tugs the necklace hard enough for the thorns to draw blood. The thorns may also recall the crown of thorns of Christ, casting the painter as a martyr after failed love; in that reading the butterflies and dragonflies stand for her resurrection.
Lush greenery usually speaks of fertility, but here it sits in stark contrast to the death in the foreground. Kahlo said that she painted not dreams but her own reality, and here she shows that reality without softening it.
Why is this self-portrait so well known?
Most of her work consists of self-portraits in which she faced illness, infertility and a troubled marriage head on. Her characteristic brows, elaborate hair and Mexican motifs made her, as Wikipedia notes, a popular figure in Mexico and the United States, and all of them meet on this canvas.
Her bond with indigenous Mexican culture matters too. With strong symbols from that tradition, such as the hummingbird, she placed herself in a line of rebellion against colonial power and male rule. That is why it ranks among the famous Frida Kahlo paintings that are most written about and debated.
Since 1990 it has travelled widely, from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City to Rome in 2014, New York in 2015 and Boston in 2019.
The exhibition list and both readings of the symbols are set out in the Wikipedia article (in English).
Where is the original kept, and how did it get there?
Nickolas Muray bought the self-portrait shortly after it was finished. It is now in the Nickolas Muray collection at the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin, which acquired it in 1966.
The canvas is fairly small, about 61 cm high and 46 cm wide, so the face feels close rather than monumental, as if Kahlo sat right in front of you.
This self-portrait or another work by Frida Kahlo?
This canvas painting is dark and dense, with deep greens and blacks and the sharp white accent of the blouse. It looks best seen up close: in a home office, a hallway or above a bedroom chest of drawers.
If you are drawn to Kahlo seen twice, choose The Two Fridas. Pain carried by an animal is the subject of The Wounded Deer, while the Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky is lighter and more festive.
An even closer, almost private face with tears comes in Diego and I. Every work by the painter that we paint to order is gathered on the Frida Kahlo page.
How does our painter paint this self-portrait?
Kahlo painted with clear outlines, flattened perspective and bright, saturated colours, on a smooth surface with almost no visible brushwork. Our painter first draws the face, shoulders and both animals precisely, then lays on leaves and sky in thin layers.
Next come the warm, calm skin and the white blouse. The fine brush comes last: monkey and cat fur, leaf veins, hummingbird feathers, the blood on the thorns and the silver butterflies.
The result is a Frida Kahlo reproduction with deep, lasting colours that catch the light differently from any print. Each oil painting reproduction is made individually for your order, never taken from stock.
Which size for which wall?
In short: 40 x 49 cm for a narrow wall or a shelf, 45 x 60 cm above a chest of drawers or a desk, and 51 x 67 cm for the central place on a wall.
For this self-portrait we offer only three portrait sizes (width x height): 40 x 49, 45 x 60 and 51 x 67 cm. The nearest to the original is 45 x 60 cm, which is 1 cm narrower and 1 cm shorter.
Because of the direct gaze, hang it at about eye level. As a painting for the living room, 51 x 67 cm works best above an armchair or beside a bookcase; 45 x 60 cm suits a study or bedroom, and the smallest a narrow wall by a door.
Can I order another size or a frame?
If none of the three sizes suits you, you can ask us about another. Send us a request with the width and height you have in mind; we check whether it can be done and reply with price and timing.
The self-portrait reaches you rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia stretches and frames every painting we send. You pick the frame in our 3D app, which is for choosing frames only; a view of the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
A dark wooden frame echoes the black fur; light natural wood picks up the green leaves.
When will the self-portrait arrive?
We start painting once you confirm the order, and in 15 to 45 working days the painting is ready to travel. Before we ship it you get a photograph of the finished work, and any changes you ask for are made.
Within Slovenia and the rest of the EU there are no customs, and our returns policy covers every purchase.
It is a fitting gift for anyone who loves Mexico, animals or stories of strong women. If you are unsure which size is right, give a wall art voucher and let them choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original?
At the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, in the Nickolas Muray collection.
What hangs from the thorn necklace?
A dead black hummingbird with spread wings, a charm for luck in love in Mexican folklore.
Is it a print?
No, each one is a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, made to your order.
How big is the original?
About 61 cm high and 46 cm wide; our nearest size is 45 x 60 cm.
Can I have it in a different size?
We offer three sizes; for another, write to us and we will check what is possible.
How long does it take to make?
Painting takes 15 to 45 working days; no customs duty applies within the EU.
Is it a good gift?
Yes, especially for anyone who loves Kahlo and Mexico; if the size is unclear, a voucher works well.
What does the monkey mean?
Rivera gave Kahlo a spider monkey, so some see it as his symbol, the one causing her pain.
- Subject: Kahlo with a thorn necklace and a dead hummingbird, flanked by a monkey and a black cat.
- Original: 1940, oil on canvas, approx. 61 x 46 cm, Harry Ransom Center, Austin.
- Ours: oil on canvas, painted by hand to order, in three portrait sizes: 40 x 49, 45 x 60 and 51 x 67 cm.
- Worth knowing: the photographer Nickolas Muray bought it shortly after it was painted.
