Self Portrait with Necklace of Thorns

Kahlo painted the self-portrait, which includes a black cat and a monkey, after her divorce from Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with photographer Nickolas Muray. Muray bought the portrait shortly after it was painted, and it is currently part of the Nickolas Muray collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

This rather small painting (approximately 24” × 18”) shows Kahlo in a frontal position and directly confronting the viewer's gaze from the canvas with leaves behind her in the background. Her bold eyebrows hold the emphasis on her face, as a thorn necklace strangles her throat, trailing down her chest like the roots of a tree. A small black hummingbir...