Frida Kahlo’s Split-Self Portraits: “The Two Fridas” reflects imaginary companion; “The Accident” is signed twice with two different spellings  

“In the autumn of 1950 — echoing one of her favorite poets, Walt Whitman, who professed ‘Do I contradict myself?…I contain multitudes’ — Frida Kahlo affirmed: ‘I have enjoyed being contradictory’ ” (1, p. 19).

And it has often been commented that Kahlo’s self-portraits show a person with a split personality. Her most famous painting in this regard is “The Two Fridas” (2, 3), for which she gave two explanations. She said its immediate cause was her breakup with Diego Rivera. But her diary traced the painting to the continuing influence of her imaginary companion, who originated when she had polio at age six, her first major trauma.

Kahlo’s second major trauma was a near-fatal traffic accident when she was eighteen, which is depicted in her drawing, “The Accident.”

“On 17 September 1926, the first anniversary of the accident, Kahlo drew an illustration of the event. It is a pencil drawing that is pervaded with duality…it depicts ‘two Fridas’; finally, it is even signed twice, once ‘Frieda’ and a second time ‘Frida’ ” (1, p. 53-54).

If not for that reference to the two signatures, I wouldn’t have noticed. But, if you look closely, you can see that “Frida Kahlo” is written over “Frieda Kahlo,” with the “e” barely noticeable between the “i” and “d (4).

In multiple personality, the names of alternate personalities sometimes differ only slightly, like the difference between “Frida” and “Frieda.”

1. Gannit Ankori. Frida Kahlo. London, Reaktion Books, 2013.

2. https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-two-fridas.jsp

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Fridas

4. https://theartstack.com/artist/frida-kahlo/artwork-1926-accident-penci