Portrait of Alejandro Gomez Arias

Portrait of Alejandro Gómez Arias (1928)

Oil on wood 61,5 x 41 cm. 24" x 16" Private Collection Mexico

This painting is a portrait of Frida's boyfriend Alejandro Arias. It is painted in a conventional portrait style similar to that of a photograph…a sharp contrast to the Renaissance style of her previous portraits.

The legend in the upper right corner of the painting reads: "Alex, with affection I painted your portrait, that he is one of my comrades forever, Frida Kahlo, 30 years later".

In 1922, Frida began classes at the National Prep School in Mexico City. There she met and fell in love with Alejandro Gómez Arias. For three years they were inseparable. Alex, as Frida called him, was with her on that rainy September afternoon in 1925 when the bus they were riding was struck by a trolley. Alejandro was not seriously injured and it was he who convinced the doctors at the Red Cross Hospital to attend to Frida after they had left her thinking she was too seriously injured to ever survive. Without his persistence Frida probably would have died.

While recovering from the accident, Frida wrote countless letters to Alex. In her letters she complained about the pain and about being bedridden, asking him sometimes, "what is going to happen in 30 years", or "how am I going to be when I am 30".

Frida and Alex separated in June of 1928 and Frida quickly turned her attention towards Diego Rivera. This painting was lost for several years but was supposedly found again in 1994. It was on display at the 2005 Kahlo exhibit in London at the Tate Modern. In 2007 it was displayed again at the Palace of Fine Arts Museum in Mexico City for the 100th anniversary exhibit. Rachel Tibol, a well known Mexican art critic and author of several Kahlo books, viewed the painting at the exhibit in Mexico City and declared it a fake. As of this posting, June 2007, the investigation as to its authenticity continues.