The painting by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) portraying her sister Cristina will be part of a group of 13 works owned by the American music executive Jerry Moss, who passed away last August at the age of 88, which will be put on display auction at Christie’s in New York on November 9 and 10, where the collection is expected to sell for a total of over $50 million.
Among the main lots is Kahlo’s 1928 painting “Portrait of Christina, My Sister”, which according to Christie’s is the only work by the painter in which her younger sister appears. The work was created when Kahlo was still at the beginning of her career. When Kahlo completed the work, she still had a good relationship with Cristina, but their bond would deteriorate after Cristina had an affair with the painter Diego Rivera, Frida’s husband. Estimated to cost between $8 million and $12 million, the work is among the most valuable Kahlo paintings offered at a public sale. Moss bought it in 2001 for $1.7 million at Sotheby’s, during a sale of Latin American art in New York. Over the past twenty years, Kahlo’s numbers at auction have increased dramatically. In 2021, when a self-portrait by Kahlo sold for $34.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York, she set a new record, four times higher than her previous record of $8 million. The painting from the Moss collection is set to become the second most expensive work by Kahlo sold at public auction if it reaches its estimate. But, in a joint statement, Max Carter, Christie’s vice president for 20th and 21st century art, and Marysol Nieves, Christie’s senior specialist for Latin American art, said this estimate is actually “conservative” given the “rarity” of the painting.
Frida Kahlo chooses to portray her sister in a pose reminiscent of Renaissance subjects, as can be seen in the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. This “custom”, which consists in the use of poses typical of Renaissance subjects, was very common among nineteenth-century Mexican painters. Frida, differently from the Mexican artists of her contemporaries, adds elements belonging to the style of Diego Rivera. Behind the girl, you can see a stylized tree, in stark contrast to the very light background; the presence of the two trees are preparatory to giving a sense of depth to the scene.