Frida Kahlo Broken Column Analysis

The self-portrait The Broken Column was painted by Frida Kahlo in 1944. This work

is oil on canvas, mounted on masonite, and it is 40 x 30.7 cm. The Broken Column is at

Museo Dolores Olmedo in Mexico. This painting is one of Kahlo’s most famous

iconic self-portraits which represents feminism in its time, for it shatters the traditional

idealized image of women through it subject matter, depiction of female beauty and

symbolism.

This life-size painting has a horizontal perspective. In this painting, Kahlo painted

herself as a strong woman with a broken body, because she hurt by a train in

1925. The nude Kahlo stands upright in the midst of a cracked plain. She stares at

the audience directly, and her hands grasp a
This artwork is not meant to please anyone; it is just for

Kahlo herself. It changed what people think about women’s status in the arts. As

Kahlo said: “I paint my reality. The only thing that I know is that I paint because I

need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other

consideration” (Herrera 4). In this painting, Frida Kahlo painted her own special

experience of her body. It essentially represents Kahlo’s anguished experience and

feelings during the mid-1940s. At this time, since Kahlo had to wear the heavy

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corsets to support her back, both her physical and mental conditions suffered. This

painting has Kahlo’s own unique memory and meanings; it is not just how she looks.

During the fifteenth century, these images of women, which were produced by the

ideals of society, showed the ideals of female beauty, behavior and display

(Tinagli 4). But this self portrait expresses her memory and replaced the stereotypical

representations of women in Western artworks. Kahlo used the painting to share
During the fifteenth century, female

portraits emphasized on women’s round foreheads, and plucked eyebrows, and

painters barely used light and shade to depict the structure of cheek, jaw and

shape of the head. Moreover, painters stressed the richness of jewelry and women

were not allowed eye contact with the viewers (Tinagli 50). However, in The Broken

Column, Kahlo depicted herself as a nude women with a unibrow and mustache on

her face. To compare with her beautiful breast, the unibrow and beard were ugly on

the female face. These are male symbols, which totally challenge the traditional

thought of female beauty. Moreover, they are satirical symbol for the discrimination

against women. That emphasis on the feminine gender role is turned around. In

other words, it also contrasts strongly from the traditional painting in Western art

history. She showed her injury and pain, and viewers see her as a person who

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had a life experience rather than as a sexual object. Kahlo concerned herself with

her images and explores her beautiful body through art. At the same time,