Frida Kahlo's "Lady in White" sells for $5.8 Million at Christie’s
23 November 2019
Frida Kahlo’s Portrait of a Lady in White (c. 1929) sold for more than $5.8 million at Christie’s Latin American art sale in New York yesterday, making it the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction. The work’s value had been estimated between $3 million and $5 million. Previously, her Dos Desnudos en el Bosque (La Tierra Misma) (1939) sold for over $8 million at Christie’s in 2016.
It is unclear who the subject of the portrait is, though there are a few theories. Because it is unfinished, some speculate that the portrait depicts one of Kahlo’s lovers, whom she had a falling out with; the relationship ended, and so did the painting. Two nephews of a woman named Dorothy (Brown) Fox came forward in 2014 and claimed that the painting was of their aunt. Others speculate that the woman might be a relative or friend of Ralph Stackpole, a sculptor who lived with Kahlo and Rivera in San Francisco.
Virgilio Garza, head of Christie’s Latin American Art department, posited to Forbes that he believed the painting to be Kahlo’s high school classmate Elena Boder.
Read the complete artnet.com article at the link below
