Frida Kahlo’s life was full of suffering and illness, and she depicted them in her artworks. Mexican author and politician, Andrés Henestrosa, defined her life as “lived dying.” At the age of 6, she has contracted polio, which made her right leg shorter and thinner than the left. Frida was also severely injured in a bus accident at the age of 18. The accident killed several people and fractured Kahlo’s ribs, both her legs and her collarbone. An iron handrail impaled her through her pelvis, fracturing the pelvic bone. Frida also had two abortions in her life, which caused a serious hemorrhage. In mid-1940, Frida Kahlo’s health worsens, the pain in her foot and spine increased, and she had to wear a steel corset to support her back. She spent her last year mostly in the hospital, and at times when she felt better, she painted.
She also decorated her plastic corset, which she wore after surgeries with photos, a mirror, stars, and paint. In 1953 doctors decided to amputate her leg because of gangrene. And she became very depressed for her leg amputation that in her diary, she revealed her desire to commit suicide. Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 47.
These photographs capture her final years of life when she was sick and hospitalized. Also, check out Frida Kahlo’s artwork.
