Frida Kahlo's The Wounded Deer, painted in 1946, puts her own face on the body of a stag pierced by nine arrows. The arrows stand for the pain of her spine, and the small panel is usually read as a cry of despair. It was also a wedding present for two friends.
The panel is a small oil on masonite, about the size of a sheet of paper. The deer stands in a thin forest, blood running from every wound, and turns a woman's face toward the viewer.
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Kahlo gave the panel to her friends Arcady and Lina Boytler as a wedding present. The dedication that came with it is dated May 3, 1946.
That dedication takes the form of a poem, written in rhymed Spanish and plain everyday words. I read the panel as a gift first and a self portrait second.
The Boytlers and the poem
Arcady Boytler was a film director born in Moscow in 1895. He came to Mexico in 1933 to shoot a picture and never left, and he died in Mexico City in 1965. His films include La mujer del puerto, The Woman of the Port.
Kahlo's dedication is printed in full in a study in the journal Crónicas of Mexico's national university. Its first lines make the portrait itself the present.
Ahí les dejo mi retrato, pa' que me tengan presente, todos los días y las noches que de ustedes yo me ausente. "Here I leave you my portrait, so that you keep me in mind every day and night that I am away from you."
Then comes the deer: Solito andaba el venado, rete triste y muy herido, hasta que en Arcady y Lina encontró calor y nido. "The deer walked alone, very sad and badly hurt, until in Arcady and Lina it found warmth and a nest."
The poem closes by thanking the couple, "children of my life," for so much comfort. The picture that goes with it still carries nine arrows, and the number has three separate explanations.
What You'll Discover
Why there are exactly nine arrows.
What the word by her signature says.
Why a stag wears her face.