Author
James Darton
Contributing Editor
The Casa Azul in the Coyoacán area of Mexico City was the place that Frida Kahlo called home for most of her life. Bought by her father in the years before she was born, it came to Kahlo in 1939. In many respects the house, and in particular its accompanying garden, would become one of Kahlo’s defining works, one that she worked on passionately until her death in 1954. After a month in hospital she was taken home to die and her final request was to be moved to a room that allowed her to look out across her beloved garden: an environment that both matched and inspired the rich vibrancy of its custodian’s life.
Many aspects of Kahlo’s life can be traced through the photos and paintings of her garden. Her relationship with Leon Trotsky, exiled in Mexico, is documented in a small collection of photographs, many taken amongst the plants and flowers sprawling from the grounds of Casa Azul. A photograph taken just three years before her death shows Frida standing proud amidst an abundance of exotic-looking blooms and explosions of wall-climbing ivy. Her face, so often characterised as a collection of severe features, is somehow softened by her obvious joy at the nature surrounding her. The photo is black and white, but you can almost feel the richness of colours spilling from the image.
![1 Floom Magazine Frida Kahlo Garden Apapacho Gallery 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_apapacho_gallery_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=216ffd5aeec8f0fbec8d9df422dcd667 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_apapacho_gallery_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=a88a377365c769fcea69625047653023 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_apapacho_gallery_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=67d65137413d1186bdba1e7793a3e787 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_apapacho_gallery_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=64f0b083c62f01adda081c32c263b65a 400w)
If the colours in the above photo exist on an imagined plane then there can be no mistaking their almost tangible tones in the portraits she set in the garden. A self portrait painted in 1940, a year after taking ownership of the house shows Frieda in all her glory: those defiant streaks of unconventional facial hair and pursed lips, elevated amongst verdant foliage and diverse wildlife.
![1 Floom Magazine Frida Kahlo Garden 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=91d4fc29dd2f4012f648e47d7310498e 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=e135fc9f8a99cf0ba8a67012be49055c 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=31b015cb7af83743ff953bfed6fc440b 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=44eeeacd9df5f78972c9c52f803c317e 400w)
Kahlo used the garden as an open-air classroom when she began to teach, and the garden life spilled increasingly into the interiors of her home. All manner of flowers - including masses of dahlias, the national flower of Mexico - would flood her dining table. Here she would work on her still life compositions and press flowers within the pages of her favourite books. In fact, a recent exhibition on Kahlo at the New York Botanical Gardens included her copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass (this writer’s all-time favourite collection of poetry). Inside the pages still are dried leaves and petals. Surveying the striking features and uses of Kahlo’s garden, one can’t help but be reminded of a snippet from Whitman’s opus, summing up as it does the way the great artist interacting with her green space: “storming, enjoying, planning, loving…”
Take a look at more photos take from the book Frida Kahlo's Garden by Adriana Zavala below.
![1 Floom Magazine Frida Kahlo Garden 5](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_5.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=c8aaa94ae3cd5946b4b4c766efed52be 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_5.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=e646ac34ebc72629f3fc2b0314604f7e 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_5.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=466650722c4bee8e3b785fb428d2ec45 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_5.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=fa6e66b11f074c3f04c2845054e84ef2 400w)
![1 Floom Magazine Frida Kahlo Garden 3](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_3.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=25658b428b45b41603d9d6694ab06252 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_3.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=70e95d552e1e811d48f91dc387eca938 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_3.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=7cbb1d7fa55d19f596b95828cca6a547 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_3.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=841559aa86d26aa9e2dff45b6eefe1fb 400w)
![1 Floom Magazine Frida Kahlo Garden 4](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_4.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=2277eaddd0bb6de3fe3a9295601c3880 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_4.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=722ed20e4ad6be2853db3f9a77142134 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_4.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=729bb0a171e7f30d890cadb0ec4d3c26 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_frida_kahlo_garden_4.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=235dfa246baf10d0b19c2ec203e6089a 400w)
Photo Credit:
Black and white photo of Frida Kahlo in her garden - www.apapachogallery.com