The Broken Column

Kahlo was 18 years old when she was involved in a horrific traffic accident, in which an iron rod pierced her abdomen, right foot was crushed, and two vertebrae were fractured, as well as a number of other bones, including eleven fractures in her right leg. As she recovered in a full body cast, her mother brought her a small lap easel, and, with a mirror over her bed, began painting self-portraits. This self-portrait embodies many elements that were in Kahlo’s artwork, including the themes of isolation, a broken body, and intense suffering and pain. This painting also embodies another one of Kahlo’s themes, that of two bodies, one of which she is a complete and full bodied woman, and another, reflecting broken insides.