Portrait of Luther Burbank

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo painted this Portrait of Luther Burbank in 1931, a surrealist tribute to the American horticulturist who revolutionized plant breeding. The oil on masonite measures 87 x 62 cm and shows Burbank as a human-plant hybrid, his body merged with a tree trunk, his legs becoming roots fed by his own corpse underground.

Burbank (1849-1926) developed over 800 plant varieties during his career, including the Shasta daisy and the Russet Burbank potato. Kahlo painted him in San Francisco, where she and Diego Rivera were living. The portrait shows her characteristic duality of life and death: Burbank holds an uprooted plant above ground while his decaying body nourishes the roots below.

Standing in a black suit against green foliage and blue sky, Burbank represents humanity's connection to nature. Life and death intertwine, each feeding the other. The painting hangs at the Dolores Olmedo Collection in Mexico City.