Photos of a Very Young Frida Kahlo, Taken by Her Dad

 

Ay que linda! 

Long before the tumultuous marriage to Diego Rivera and the mortifications of the flesh occasioned by a horrific bus accident, and longer still before the avalanche of Frida-centric kitsch and tchotchkes and the Julie Taymor biopic starring Salma Hayek, there was a cherubic little girl named Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón.

Would this angel grow up to inscribe her diary thusly:

I cannot relieve my frustrations with sex.  I don’t give a shit what the world thinks.  I was born a bitch, I was born a painter, I was born fucked.  But I was happy in my way.

There are legions of Fridaholics who hope so. Unfortunately, that diary, part of a “lost archive” that came to light five years ago, has yet to be authenticated beyond all shadow of a doubt.

Not so these photos of young Magdalena Carmen Frieda, taken by her Hungarian Jewish father, Guillermo, over a period of twenty years.

The 2-year-old Frida is merry, chubby, and barely recognizable.

The piercing gaze starts coming into focus around age 5.  Kid looks like an artist already!

The famous eyebrows have filled in by 12, when she faces the camera in a sailor suit and giant hair bow.

The 18-year-old pre-med student adopting an unsmiling pose in 1926—the year of the accident—is unapologetic, intense, and unmistakably Frida Kahlo.

Visit Vintage Everyday for more of Guillermo Kahlo’s images of his second-to-last daughter.

Related Content:

Frida Kahlo Writes a Personal Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe After O’Keeffe’s Nervous Breakdown (1933)

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Visit Leon Trotsky in Mexico, 1938

A Quick Animation of Frida Kahlo’s Famous Self Portrait

Ayun Halliday is an author, homeschooler, and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine. Follow her @AyunHalliday

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Photos of a Very Young Frida Kahlo, Taken by Her Dad