Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, the third of four daughters of Wilhelm Kahlo, a German Jew of Hungarian descent, and Matilde Calderon de Kahlo, a mestizo Mexican. The family lived in a house that the parents had built themselves in 1904, in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City. Frida’s maternal grandfather had been a photographer and had taught her father the craft. Wilhelm, who changed his name to Guillermo when he became a Mexican citizen, set himself up in business and rose to relative prosperity, receiving commissions from the Mexican government. However, the Mexican Revolution, which started in 1910 and would continue for several decades, brought an end to this work, and as a result, Kahlo’s childhood was spent in relative poverty, forcing her to start working at an early age.
1926. Oil on canvas. 79 x 58 cm Private collection.
1929. Oil on masonite. 79.4 x 70 cm Private collection.
1929. Oil on Masonite. 83.8 x 68 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
1929. Oil on canvas. 69.3 x 53.3. Private collection.
1929. Oil on canvas. 26 x 56 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
c.1930. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1930. Oil on canvas. 66 x 56 cm. Private collection.
1931. Oil on canvas. 99 x 78.7 cm. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA.
1931. Oil on canvas. 62.9 x 47 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
1931. Oil on Masonite. 88 x 62 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
1932. Oil on metal. 31.1 x 39.3 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
1932. Oil on metal. 31 x 35 cm. Private collection.
1932. Oil on metal 31.7 x 35 cm. Private collection.
1933. Oil and collage on Masonite. 45.8 x 50.2 cm. Private collection.
1933. Oil on metal. 34.3 x 29.2 cm. Private collection.
1935. Oil on metal. 38 x 48.2 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
1936. Oil and tempera on metal panel. 30.5 x 35 cm. The Museum of Modern Arts, New York, NY, USA.
1937. Oil on metal. 29.8 x 34.9 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.
1937. Oil on masonite. 76.2 x 61 cm. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., USA.
1937. Oil on metal. 40 x 32 cm. Private collection.
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Frida Kahlo. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2005.
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. Harper Perennial, 2002.
Frida Kahlo: The Paintings by Hayden Herrera. Harper Perennial, 2002.
I Will Never Forget You...: Frida Kahlo to Nickolas Muray by Salomon Grimberg. Schirmer/Mosel, 2005.
Frida Kahlo: The Painter And Her Work by Helga Prignitz-Poda, Frida Kahlo. Schirmer/Mosel, 2004.
Frida Kahlo 1907-1954: Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann. Taschen, 2000. Biography by Yuri Mataev