Lucas Museum Buys a Frida Kahlo Self Portrait
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser , 1940. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art In the L.A. Times , Deborah Vankin reports that the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has bought Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser (1940). Going by the online images, it's everything you could want in a Kahlo self portrait. Museum director Sandra Jackson-Dumont calls the painting "the 'Mona Lisa' of Mexico." The "narrative" part of the painting is, presumably, the banderole at bottom, dedicating the portrait to Dr. Leo Eloesser, the San Francisco surgeon who treated Kahlo for pain in her hand and foot. The hand grasping the ribbon resembles a milagro, a folk charm for healing. The hand-shaped earrings were a gift from Picasso. Kahlo painted about 55 self portraits. The most admired group dates from the turbulent period of her 1939 divorce from Diego Rivera and 1940 remarriage. The only comparable work in a U.S. institution is the Self-Portra
