This painting was finished in 1949 but Frida drew a primitive sketch of it in her diary in August of 1947. In this painting, Frida expressed her feelings about love and life and death. This
painting has many elements of Mexican mythology. In her arm, she is holding her husband Diego Rivera like a baby. Diego has a face and body of an adult man and also has a third eye in his forehead,
which is a symbol for wisdom but he is depicted as a baby need to be nursed by the woman, which is Frida herself.
Both of them are held by the Aztec Earth Mother, Cihuacoatl, which is a character in Mexican mythology and made from clay and rock. The outermost image is the Universal Mother who is holding
everything and half-dark, half-bright.
A local journalist wrote this about Frida Kahlo: " It is impossible to separate the life and work of this extraordinary person. Her paintings are her biography." Here again in this painting,
Frida presents so many elements, life, death, night, day, moon, sun, man, and woman all in a recurring dichotomy.
MOST POPULAR PAINTINGS
The Two Fridas
Viva la Vida, Watermelons
The Wounded Table
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
Henry Ford Hospital
Self Portrait as a Tehuana
Without Hope
The Wounded Deer