Still Life with Flag - Frida Kahlo

A late-period still life by Frida Kahlo, featuring a collection of fruit and a small Mexican flag rendered with expressive, heavy brushwork.

Still Life with Flag, painted in 1954, represents one of the final works completed by Frida Kahlo. The composition features a collection of fruits, including oranges and sliced watermelon, arranged upon a dark, textured surface. A small Mexican flag is positioned among the produce, providing a distinct nationalistic element within the domestic scene. The brushwork is heavy and expressive, departing from the precise, miniaturist technique seen in her earlier self-portraits. Kahlo often utilised the still life genre to explore themes of identity and physical decay. In this work, the fruit appears ripe, yet the surrounding atmosphere is sombre and heavy. The dark, moody background contrasts with the bright yellow and red tones of the fruit, creating a sense of tension. The inclusion of the flag suggests a personal connection to her heritage, which remained a constant theme throughout her career. Unlike her more complex symbolic paintings, this piece focuses on the materiality of the objects and the application of paint itself. The work provides insight into her late-period style, where she moved toward a more gestural and raw method of representation. It remains a significant example of her ability to imbue everyday objects with personal meaning, even as her health declined during the final year of her life.