Portrait of Cristina My Sister

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted this portrait of her sister Cristina in 1928, making it the only painting she ever made of her sibling. The oil on wood measures 99 by 81.5 centimeters and represents one of Kahlo's earliest works, painted while she was still recovering from the devastating bus accident that had left her bedridden.

Cristina was born in June 1908, only eleven months after Frida. She was nineteen or twenty when she posed for this portrait. The painting already shows the stylistic influence of Diego Rivera, whom Kahlo would marry the following year. The sisters' relationship would later be complicated by Cristina's affair with Diego, one of the most painful betrayals in Kahlo's life.

The portrait sold at Christie's in November 2023 as part of music executive Jerry Moss's collection, having previously sold for $1.7 million in 2001. It's currently in a private collection, a rare early work capturing the women who shaped Kahlo's art.