25 Brilliant Frida Kahlo Facts

Published October 24, 2025

Frida Kahlo's real name is Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon._[2]
Frida's father was German and her mother was a mestiza._[2]
When Kahlo was a child, she contracted polio, which made her right leg weak and thin. However, that didn't stop her from becoming a champion swimmer. She also wrestled, boxed, and played soccer._[2]
When Frida was 18, she was in a terrible bus accident. The accident broke her pelvis, fractured her spine in three places, pierced her uterus, and more. She was bedridden for three months and her plans for attending medical school were crushed. Bored, she started to paint._[1]

Frida's father is a German descendant and photographer. He immigrated to Mexico and married Mathilde, who is half Amerindian and Spanish. Frida has two older sisters and one younger sister.

Frida had two older sisters, Matilde and Adriana, and one younger sister, Cristina._[1]
Frida's father was a photographer, and she would travel with him as he took pictures of the Mexican landscape. From him, she learned about Mexican history and composition._[1]
Because polio weakened Frida's leg when she was six years old, the kids in her neighborhood teased her and called her "pata de palo," or "peg leg."_[1]
Frida had a pet deer named Granizo who would often go on walks with her._[3]
The turning point in her career was her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938. There she sold half of her displayed painting and went on to display her work in other prestigious galleries globally._[3]
Frida Kahlo was fluent in several languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian._[3]
One of Frida Kahlo's most famous works "The Two Fridas" symbolize her emotional pain during her divorce from Diego Rivera._[3]

In 1939, Frida Kahlo painted "The Two Fridas," which is the same year as her divorce

Kahlo and her husband Rivera both had affairs. Rivera even had an affair with Kahlo's younger sister Cristina. Frida and Rivera divorced in 1939, but then remarried a year later._[3]
Even though Kahlo was born in 1907, she liked to say that she was born three years after so that her birthday would coincide with the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910._[3]
Kahlo's self-portrait Roots broke an auction record for a Latin American piece of art when it sold in May 2006 for $5.6 million._[3]
Frida was born in the house her father had built in 1904. Because the outside was painted bright blue, it was called the Blue House. The house was an important part of her life, and she would return to die there in 1954. It is now the Frida Kahlo Museum._[1]

Frida Kahlo was born and died in "The Blue House" (La Casa Azul) in Coyoacan, Mexico City. It is now a museum dedicated to her life and work.

The 500 Mexican peso bill features Frida Kahlo on one side, and her husband, Diego Rivera, on the other side._[3]
Frida Kahlo painted 143 known paintings, of those, 55 are self-portraits. According to Kahlo, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." Her most famous self-portrait is Self- -portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird._[3]
Kahlo often wore the traditional Tehuana dresses, which became her iconic style and a symbol of Mexican culture._[1]
In her self-portraits, Frida Kahlo tended to emphasize her unibrow and faint mustache._[3]

Frida and Diego both hated the capitalistic system

Frida and her husband Diego Rivera were committed communists and were active in the Mexican Communist Party._[3]
Frida once said, "I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."_[3]
Because of her unblinking portrayal of female identity and experience, Frida Kahlo is widely viewed as one of the first feminist icons in art._[1]
Kahlo included animals in her work, such as birds, monkeys, and dogs, to represent different aspects of her life and personality._[3]
Despite her lifelong pain from her bus accident, Frida Kahlo painted over 140 works._[1]
Kahlo is the only Mexican woman to have a major solo exhibition at the Louvre in 1939._[1]