Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter noted for her intense, brilliantly colored self-portraits painted in a primitivistic style. Though she denied the connection, she is often identified as a Surrealist. Her paintings have been the cause of much controversy.

Her Childhood

Born on July 6, 1907, Frida Kahlo was christened Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon. She would later give her birthday as July 7, 1910, which is the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, preferring it to the less significant but real date she was actually born on. She grew up in a home called the "Blue House," with her mother, Matilde Calderon Kahlo, and her father, Guillermo Kahlo, as well as her five sisters. Her mother disliked her, but her father favored her, considering her the most intelligent. After a new political party came into power, her father lost his stable job, and to make ends meet, the family took in...