Description
The Two Fridas is a double self-portrait that Frida Kahlo painted in 1939, the year of her divorce from Diego Rivera. On a low bench with a woven seat, two versions of the painter sit hand in hand: on the left one in a white European dress with a lace collar, on the right one in Mexican Tehuana dress. Both hearts lie open, joined by a single vein, and a stormy sky gathers behind them. The original, oil on canvas, is 173.5 cm high and 173 cm wide and hangs in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. Our painter paints it to order in oil colours on canvas, in one of 8 nearly square sizes from 45 x 45 to 180 x 180 cm or made to measure, and before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting.
| Title: | The Two Fridas |
| Other titles: | Las dos Fridas · Die zwei Fridas |
| Painter: | Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) |
| Year painted: | 1939 |
| Original size: | 173.5 cm x 173 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Mexican modernism |
| Located at: | Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
The Two Fridas – Frida Kahlo
What does The Two Fridas show?
Two women with the same face sit side by side on a low bench with a woven seat. Both wear their dark hair pinned high, both have thick brows that meet above the nose, and both look straight at us, serious and unsmiling. They are one person: Frida Kahlo painted herself twice.
The Frida on the left wears a white dress of European cut in Victorian style, with a high lace collar, ruffled sleeves and small embroidered flowers on the skirt. The Frida on the right is in Tehuana dress: a blue blouse trimmed with yellow and a full brown skirt finished with a white pleated hem.
On each chest a heart is shown as in an anatomy textbook. The European Frida’s heart is cut open, while the Mexican Frida’s is whole. A single vein links the two hearts, winding from their hands through both hearts and around the right-hand Frida’s arm.
In her lap the Mexican Frida holds a tiny portrait of Diego Rivera. The European Frida grips surgical forceps that have cut the vein, and blood drips onto her white skirt. Behind them, above bare ground, a grey-blue sky is heavy with dark clouds.
What does the double self-portrait mean?
Frida Kahlo painted it in 1939, the same year she divorced the painter Diego Rivera; they remarried a year later. As Wikipedia puts it, the European Frida is therefore missing a piece of herself, her Diego, while the Mexican Frida holds his portrait in her hands.
Art historians offer several readings. Some see her dual heritage in the two figures: her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was German and her mother, Matilde Calderón, was Mexican. Another reading holds that the Tehuana Frida is the one her husband adored and the European Frida the one he rejected.
In her own recollection, the scene came from the memory of an imaginary friend from her childhood. The cut vein and the blood on the white dress allude to her life of constant pain and surgery, which followed a bus accident when she was 18; the work also alludes to the Aztec tradition of human sacrifice.
Why is The Two Fridas so famous?
At more than 170 cm in height and width, the canvas was her first large-scale work, and it is counted among her most notable paintings.
According to her friend Fernando Gamboa, it was inspired by two paintings she saw that year at the Louvre in Paris: Théodore Chassériau’s The Two Sisters and the anonymous Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters.
In January 1940 it was shown together with The Wounded Table at the International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City.
In 1998 the painting also inspired a play, Las Dos Fridas, in which two actresses play the painter. Its history and readings are covered in the Wikipedia article (in English).
Where can the original be seen?
The original hangs in the Museo de Arte Moderno, the museum of modern art in Mexico City.
The painting stayed in Frida Kahlo’s possession until 1947, when the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) acquired it. On 28 December 1966 the institute transferred it to the museum, where it remains today.
The Two Fridas or another Frida Kahlo work?
The Two Fridas is a large canvas painting for a dining room, a broad hallway or an open-plan living area, where a square composition with two figures has room to breathe.
If the couple Frida and Diego interests you, look at their wedding portrait, Frieda and Diego Rivera. Rivera as a thought on the painter’s forehead returns in Diego and I and in the portrait with the lace headdress, titled Diego in My Thoughts.
A self-portrait alone, with animals and thorns, is Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird. Other famous Frida Kahlo paintings that we paint to order are gathered on the Frida Kahlo page.
How does our painter paint your Two Fridas?
Frida Kahlo worked in clear, flat fields of colour with sharp outlines, and the surface of her canvases is smooth, with hardly a visible brushstroke. Our painter follows that manner: first the two figures, the bench and the horizon go onto the canvas, then the base tones of sky, ground and clothing.
The smallest parts come last: the hearts and their vessels, the thin red thread between the figures, the forceps, the drops of blood on the white skirt and the tiny portrait in the right-hand Frida’s hand. Because both faces look straight at the viewer, the painter gives them particular care.
The result is a Frida Kahlo reproduction painted layer by layer in oil, not printed. Like any oil painting reproduction, it has a soft sheen under light that paper cannot give.
Which size for which wall?
In short: 45 x 45 or 50 x 52 cm for a narrow wall or a hallway, 70 x 70 or 80 x 80 cm above a chest of drawers or a dining table, 100 x 105 or 120 x 120 cm above a sofa, and 138 x 138 or 180 x 180 cm for a large wall, a stairwell or an open space.
There are 8 sizes (width x height): 45 x 45, 50 x 52, 70 x 70, 80 x 80, 100 x 105, 120 x 120, 138 x 138 and 180 x 180 cm. The nearest to the original is 180 x 180 cm, which is 7 cm wider and 6.5 cm taller.
As a painting for the living room above a sofa, 100 x 105 or 120 x 120 cm is the most balanced choice; hang it with the lower edge about 20 to 25 cm above the backrest.
Can I have a custom size or a frame?
Yes. Since the original is almost square, we can paint it in a size that is not on the list, for a niche or the wall between two windows, for example. Send us the width and height you need, and we reply with price and timing.
The Two Fridas can come to you rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or already framed; our workshop in Slovenia stretches and frames each one before it leaves. Our 3D application is there to pick the frame, and a preview on your own wall is a separate service. A slim dark frame sharpens the stormy sky, a light wooden one supports the white dress and brown skirt.
When will The Two Fridas arrive?
We start painting as soon as you confirm the order, and the work takes 15 to 45 working days. Before it ships you receive a photograph of the finished painting, and if you want a change, we make it.
Because it stays inside the EU, no customs apply in Slovenia or elsewhere in the Union, and every purchase is covered by our returns policy.
The Two Fridas is a meaningful gift for someone who loves Mexico, Frida Kahlo or the stories of strong women. If you are unsure which size suits their wall, give them a wall art voucher.
Frequently asked questions
Which museum holds the original?
The Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, where it has been since 1966.
What are the two women holding?
The one on the right holds a tiny portrait of Diego Rivera, the one on the left forceps that have cut the vein.
Is it a print?
No, our painter makes a hand-painted copy with brushes and oil colours on canvas.
How big is the original?
It is 173.5 cm high and 173 cm wide; our nearest size is 180 x 180 cm.
Can I order it smaller or in my own size?
Yes, besides the eight sizes we paint it in any size you choose and tell you the price first.
How long will I wait?
Making it takes 15 to 45 working days, then it ships, with no customs inside the EU.
Does it suit a living room?
Yes, above all in the larger sizes hung over a sofa.
What does the vein between the Fridas mean?
It joins both hearts and shows that, despite their differences, they are one person; the cut vein recalls pain and loss.
- Subject: two Fridas, one in a white European dress and one in Tehuana dress, sit hand in hand, their hearts joined by a vein.
- Original: 1939, oil on canvas, 173.5 x 173 cm, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.
- Ours: oil on canvas, hand-painted to order, in 8 nearly square sizes from 45 x 45 to 180 x 180 cm or a size you choose.
- Worth knowing: it was Frida Kahlo’s first large-scale work, painted in the year of her divorce from Diego Rivera.
