Which museum acquired Frida Kahlo’s painting The Frame in 1939?

The Louvre acquired Frida Kahlo’s painting The Frame in 1939.

The Frame is a small self-portrait painted by Kahlo in 1938. It shows her face and upper body against a colorful, decorative background with flowers, leaves, and birds. The work uses oil paint on zinc, a support Kahlo employed for several small paintings.

The painting entered the Louvre’s collection after Kahlo’s exhibition in Paris in 1939. It was reportedly the first work by a twentieth-century Mexican artist to be acquired by the museum. That purchase gave Kahlo an important place in the international history of modern art.

The title can cause confusion because Kahlo made many self-portraits and frequently used elaborate framing devices. The Frame refers specifically to the 1938 work now held by the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, following the reorganization of French national collections.