Still Life (Roses)

Still Life, Roses 1925

Oil on canvas mounted on board 16 ¼" x 12"Private Collection

This is one of Frida's very first paintings....a gift for her older sister, Adriana. It is done in the typical European "Still Life" style. As in most all of Kahlo's paintings, there is a message of pain. This painting may look like an ordinary Still Life painting but it reflects the turmoil in her relationship with her boyfriend Alejandro Gómez Arias. It seems that while Alejandro was courting Frida, he, at the same time, was pursuing another young lady with which he was having sexual encounters. Frida's attempts to win him solely for herself failed and she always thought of herself as "the other women" in the three-way relationship. In this painting, the two fully opened roses in the vase symbolize Alejandro and his other love interest. The wilting rejected rose on the table is Frida. At this point in Frida's life she had no interest in pursuing a career as an artist. Her goal was to become a doctor. Shortly after this painting was finished, a terrible bus accident left Frida scarred physically and emotionally for life. That accident changed the course of Frida's life forever.