Frida Kahlo painting The Wounded Table

You may have noticed that this painting also appears on the wall of Kahlo’s studio in the photograph, Diego Rivera Watching Frida Kahlo Paint a Self Portrait. Though depicted here as if she is putting the finishing touches on The Wounded Table, it is likely that the painting, already framed, was actually complete at the time Silberstein took this photograph. Seated in front of the painting, Kahlo leans in toward the image of herself. Her elbow almost appears to rest on the table—mirroring the Frida in the painting—as she holds her paintbrush to the dark hair of her self-portrait.

First shown in January 1940 at the International Surrealism Exhibition in Mexico City, The Wounded Table disappeared in 1955 after an exhibition in Warsaw, Poland.