Frida Kahlo’s Portrait of my Father Wilhelm Kahlo points to the fact that she was a daddy’s girl – a term I would never normally use because I find it highly Freudian and disturbing but nonetheless is accurate.

Frida and her father were always very close. He was a photographer and amateur painter who always encouraged his daughter to do what she was passionate about. Born in 1872, Wilhelm Kahlo was the son of Hungarian Jewish parents living in Germany. At the tender age of 18, Wilhelm moved to Mexico, changed his name to Guillermo, and started a life as a professional photographer, his specialty being Mexican colonial architecture. Eventually he married and had two daughters, but the marriage didn’t pan out so he tried again, this time marrying Matilde Calderón, a “mestiza” or mixed race woman usually of Mexican and Spanish descent. This time the marriage worked out and the couple had four daughters, one of which was the legend Frida Kahlo, who was probably Wilhelm’s favorite. Wilhelm built his family Casa Azul, which is where Frida spent most of her life, where she died, and is now the Frida Kahlo Museum.

This portrait is an indication of just how much Frida loved her father. It was made ten years after his death, but still depicts a young man in his prime. The representation of him was taken from his wedding portrait in 1898. The coloring of the piece is supposed to be representative of the sepia-toned pictures that Wilhelm took and taught Frida to take. His passion for photography, if it isn’t obvious, is also indicated by the camera placed behind him. If none of this is enough to believe that Frida and her father were close, there’s the inscription, which reads, "I painted my father Wilhelm Kahlo, Hungarian-German born, professional photographer and artist, with a generous, intelligent and fine character, brave because he suffered of epilepsy for 60 years but he never stopped working, and he fought against Hitler, with love, His daughter Frida Kahlo.”