Which Frida Kahlo painting shows her wearing a thorn necklace with a dead hummingbird and black cat?

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird shows Frida Kahlo wearing a thorn necklace, with a dead hummingbird hanging at her throat and a black cat behind her.

Kahlo painted the work in 1940. It is one of her most recognized self-portraits and combines personal symbolism with carefully arranged plants and animals. The necklace presses into her neck, creating a sense of pain and tension, while the hummingbird and cat add contrasting associations of life, death, and danger.

The painting is often confused with Kahlo’s other animal portraits, especially works featuring monkeys or her wounded deer. Those animals appear in separate paintings and are not interchangeable with the hummingbird composition.

The portrait is held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Its dense foliage and frontal pose are characteristic of Kahlo’s mature self-portrait style.