Thread by @marinamaral2

Frida Kahlo painting in bed, 1950s.

'After her accident, she abandoned the study of medicine and began to paint. Self-portraits were a dominant motif then.'

Kahlo once said, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”

Here's the actual painting.

Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyocoan, Mexico City.

After a bus accident in 1925 left Kahlo unable to walk for 3 months, she started to consider a career as a medical illustrator. She had a specially-made easel that enabled her to paint in bed, and a mirror placed above it so that she could see herself.

She finished her first first self-portrait the following year.

In 1944, Frida painted one of her most famous portrait, The Broken Column. In this painting, she depicted herself naked and split down the middle.

During that time, she had to go through a few surgeries and had to wear special corsets to protect her spine.

According to art historian Andrea Kettenmann, by the mid-1940s, her paintings were "featured in the majority of group exhibitions in Mexico." and "she could sell whatever she was currently painting; sometimes incomplete pictures were purchased right off the easel."

Even as Kahlo was gaining recognition in Mexico, her health was declining rapidly. During her last years, Kahlo was mostly confined to the Casa Azul.

Photographer Lola Alvarez understood that Kahlo didn't have much longer to live, and thus staged her first solo exhibition in Mexico in April 1953. Though Frida was initially not due to attend the opening, she ordered her four-poster bed to be moved from her home to the gallery.

To the surprise of the guests, she arrived in an ambulance and was carried on a stretcher to the bed, where she stayed for the duration of the party.

The exhibition was a notable cultural event in Mexico.

Kahlo's right leg was amputated at the knee due to gangrene in August 1953.

She became severely depressed and anxious: "they have given me centuries of torture and at moments I almost lost my reason (...) never in my life have I suffered more."

In her last days, Kahlo was mostly bedridden with bronchopneumonia. She seemed to anticipate her death, as she spoke about it to visitors and drew skeletons and angels in her diary.

The last drawing was a black angel. It was accompanied by the last words she wrote, "I joyfully await the exit – and I hope never to return – Frida"

("Espero alegre la salida – y espero no volver jamás").

At approximately 6 am. on 13 July 1954, her nurse found her dead in her bed.

Kahlo was 47 years old.

"Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best."

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”

(Sources: wiki & fridakahlo org)

Here's Frida at the age of 4.

And here what is probably one of my favorite photos of her.
(Leo Matiz)

The "Blue House" (Casa Azul) where Frida lived her whole life is now a museum.

It is located at Londres 247, Del Carmen, Coyoacán, México.