Memory, the Heart

[1] The oil-on-metal work measures 40 x 28 cm, and is held in the collection of Michel Petitjean in Paris, France.

Kahlo portrays herself standing on a beach by the water's edge, one foot on the sand and one in the sea, looking towards the viewer with an expressionless face covered in tears.

The rod has an image of Cupid at each end, shown as if riding a seesaw.

Frida's heart is represented by a large bleeding mutilated organ lying outside her body.

These symbols and others in the painting show the artist's immense pain, and her personal emotional damage and rebuilding, resulting from the affair between her sister and husband.