Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo: The Firestone Self-Portraits

These pendant self-portraits were painted for Sigmund Firestone, an American engineer from Rochester, NY, who met the Riveras in Mexico on a business trip in 1939, accompanied by his two daughters, Natalia and Alberta. Firestone was so moved by his visit to Diego and Frida's studio that he asked for companion portraits to remember them forever. The commission came when the Riveras were separated from each other (their divorce became final on January 9, 1940), although they remained friends and Frida continued to handle business details and correspondence for Diego. There are letters from Firestone to the couple, discussing the requirements of the commission and the price - $500 for the pair, to be divided equally (even though Rivera was a much more prominent and successful artist at that time), payable on delivery of both portraits. Frida finished her painting promptly (February 1940) but Diego delayed fulfilling his part of the commission for almost a year, as he was extremely busy in California painting the mural Pan American Unity for the Golden Gate International Exposition at Treasure Island, San Francisco.

1940 was a difficult year for Frida, emotionally, physically and financially. She writes to Firestone that [Diego] “ doesn't want to live in the same house with me anymore because he likes to be alone and he says I always want to have his papers and other things in order, and he likes them in disorder. Well anyway I take care of him the best I can from the distance and I will love him all my life even if he wouldn't want me to. ” During this year Frida was very determined to support herself from the income of her paintings and not to depend on Diego. She also was in bad health and in one letter to Firestone she writes, “ Three months I was lying in bed with a plaster corset and an awful[l] apparatus on my chin which made me suffer like hell….I spent all the money I could afford to see every specialist on bones there, and…I got so scared I was sure I was going to die. ” Finally she asks him, “ Sigy, I would like to ask you a favor. I don't know if it is too much trouble for you? Could you send me the one hundred dollars balance of my painting because I need them badly, and I promise that as soon as I go to San Francisco I will make Diego send to you his self portrait. I am sure he will do it with great pleasure, and it is only a question of time, as soon as he finish[es] the fresco he will have more time and paint for you that portrait. We will [be] together again, and you will have us together in your home. Please forgive him and forgive myself for being the way we are: we really don't mean ot hurt anyone. Will you be so kind to do so? ”

At the end of the year, on December 8th , the Riveras were remarried in San Francisco. According to the Los Angeles Times, “the ceremony was brief and simple….At the wedding Miss Kahlo was dressed in a Spanish costume with a green and white full-length skirt and a brown shawl.”

Diego finally began the self-portrait destined for Firestone in 1941, while he was staying in Santa Barbara, where he borrowed the studio of an American sculptor, Frances Rich, daughter of the actress, Irene Rich. Frances sculpted a bust of Diego while he painted his own portrait and there is a photograph of the two at work. In a letter dated May, 1982, Frances relates that her mother was so taken with Rivera's self-portrait that she begged Rivera to sell it to her, which he did; Frances was extremely happy about this as she needed time to finish the large clay bust of Diego that she had started. Rivera then painted a second self-portrait, with variatons, which he dedicated to Sigmund Firestone in January,1941. Frances Rich gave her mother's version to Smith College.

For enlarged images and histories of the individual paintings, please click on the pictures at the left.