Portrait of Dona Rosita Morillo, 1944 - by Frida Kahlo

Usually, when Frida painted people portraits she would use her feelings and fantasy and may lost the intent of creating the true likeness of the person. Compared to her self-portraits, most of the time her portraits are less powerful and less original but this one is an exception. Frida Kahlo painted this portrait of the kindly and wise grandma in an extremely refined realism and with such a great deal of details. You can feel the grandma in this portrait is real and could almost reach out and touch her.

Frida likes to put lush green leaves as background for her self-portrait, but she put the autumn color of leaves in this painting, maybe indicating the person in this portrait is in the autumn of her life. Frida painted this painting with great compassion and it is one of the most detailed paintings of Frida.

The subject of this portrait is the mother of Eduardo Morillo, who is employed in the Mexican diplomatic department. He purchased over 30 paintings from Frida over the years and commissioned her to paint several portraits for his family members. This portrait is one of Frida's favorite paintings.