This work, Frida Kahlo’s last self-portrait, was painted while the artist was bedridden and in intense pain, having suffered through numerous spinal surgeries and a leg amputation. Despite her rapidly failing health, Kahlo insisted that she continue to paint. In her heavily medicated state she abandoned her former meticulousness, but these later works which are rendered in a loose style still exhibit Kahlo’s dexterity and her sophisticated use of color. Self-Portrait Inside a Sunflower evinces the same vibrant energy and emotional intensity that characterize Kahlo’s earlier self-portraits. The symbolic composition and the burning colors of the setting sun, the wilting sunflower, and the blood red skirt are striking. According to art historian Raquel Tibol, Kahlo began to imagine herself suffocated by the sunflower before the painting was completely dry, and attempted to scrape it off her painted image with a palette knife. Fortunately, the painting was rescued by a caregiver.

Diego Rivera with Frida Kahlo’s last three paintings
- Private Collection, Dallas
- H. Prignitz-Poda, Frida Kahlo, Das Gesamtwerk, Verlag Neue Kritik, 1988, no. 144
- Salomon Grimberg, Frida Kahlo, Song of Herself, NY and London; Merrell, 2008, illustrated in color p. 148
- Anny Shaw, “In brief: Frida Kahlo attacked last painting of herself,” The Art Newspaper, Art Basel in Miami Beach, Issue 4, Dec. 8-9, 2018, illustrated in color p. 2
- Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Frida Kahlo – Retrospektive, April 30 – Aug. 9, 2010, cat. no. 65, illustrated in color p. 177. This exhibition traveled to Bank Austria Kunstforum,
Vienna, Sept. 1 – Sept. 5, 2010 - Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, Frida Kahlo, March 20 – Aug. 31, 2014, illustrated in color, p. 179
- Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Frida Kahlo et Diego Rivera, Sept. 20, 2014 – February 8, 2015, no. 75, illustrated in color
- Bronx, NY, The New York Botanical Garden, Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life,
(catalogue published under Frida Kahlo’s Garden) May 16 – Nov. 1, 2015, illustrated in color, plate 14