Self Portrait with Monkeys, 1943 - by Frida Kahlo

In Self Portrait with Monkeys, the background is a tropic plant and which is a common theme Frida liked to use. She posed herself in an academic setting. At that time Frida started to work as a teacher at School of Painting and Sculpture in Mexico City. But not long after she started her teaching, her health condition got worsened and she had to hold the classes in her own house. Eventually, the class was downsized to only four loyal students. They call themselves "Los Fridos", which means they are loyal to Frida Kahlo. Here Frida painted herself surrounded by four monkeys and which may imply her four loyal students.

The constant appearance of monkeys in Frida Kahlo's paintings was not casual. In Kahlo's canvases, monkeys are more delicate, child-like. Because of their wild qualities, monkeys are frequently connected with fertility or desire in Mexican folklore. In her Blue House in Coyoacán, Frida kept monkeys as pets. According to Frida, her monkeys symbolized the children that she was never able to bear because of the horrific injuries she had suffered in a bus accident in 1925, which led to a later abortion, and several miscarriages.

One of the reasons feminists celebrate Kahlo's work is her unabashed claim to her own sexuality. She was not afraid to acknowledge her own sexual feelings or desires.

Self Portrait with Monkeys was painted in the early 1940s and that was her most prolific years with several self-portraits painted during that period.