by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Page created on March 2, 2018 / Page updated on October 6, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Introduction
A young girl faces the viewer from a chair, her dark hair gathered by a high red bow. Her hands meet around a round red form below the white of her dress. A 2021 list credited to the Museo Frida Kahlo identifies this picture as Retrato de Marta Patricia Procel, dates it 1951 and places it in the museum's collection. [1]
The portrait invites close looking because some passages appear carefully modelled while others remain broad and open. That contrast is visible in the available reproductions, but it does not tell us why the original painting looks this way. The name in the title identifies a sitter; it does not supply her biography or the circumstances in which she posed. [1]
At a Glance
- Work: Retrato de Marta Patricia Procel (Portrait of Marta Patricia Procel). [1]
- Date and collection: 1951, Museo Frida Kahlo collection, as identified in a 2021 museum-credited list. [1]
- Sitter: Marta Patricia Procel, named in the title; her relationship to Kahlo is not established by the available records. [1]
- Distinctive features: A seated child, striped red bow, light ruffled dress and rounded red form held between the hands. [1]
- Conservation record: A 2009 report listed a work under the shorter name Retrato de Marta Procel among museum paintings proposed for restoration; it did not report a completed treatment. [2]
Contents
- Introduction
- Looking at the Portrait
- The Open Passages
- The Name and the Museum Record
- A Portrait Worth Seeing on Its Own Terms
- Related Reading
Looking at the Portrait
The girl sits close to the centre and looks almost directly out of the picture. Her shoulder-length dark hair frames a small, carefully defined face, while the bow rises conspicuously above it. The bow's red stripes and the reddish accents running down the front of her pale dress carry colour across an otherwise light central area. [1]
The dress has ruffles at the shoulders and cuffs and a high, rounded neckline. Kahlo has made the face more distinct than many passages of clothing and setting visible in the small published image. The difference draws attention first to the child's expression and then to the joined hands below. [1]
Between those hands is a single red-orange rounded form. Its strong colour echoes the bow and dress accents, making the hands a second centre of attention. The image is too small to identify the form securely as a particular fruit or to conclude that it was meant to represent a heart; its visible part in the composition is clearer than its symbolic identity. [1]
A turned chair upright and pointed finial appear at the viewer's right. Broad yellow-brown areas lie behind the sitter, and a pale diagonal form rises near her head. Dark outlines remain around the sleeves, chair and lower edge, while a reddish horizontal line marks the foreground. These features give the portrait an unusual balance between a concentrated face and more open surrounding passages. [1]
Watch: Frida Kahlo
Five perspectives to view here alongside the article.
Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas: Great Art Explained
A focused visual introduction to the painting and its context.
The Open Passages
The contrast between the developed face and the looser areas gives the picture an open appearance. In the small reproduction, however, that visible openness cannot establish whether Kahlo regarded the original work as incomplete or how its physical surface appears in person. The museum-credited list gives no technical account of the painting's condition. [1]
Nor does the apparent variation in finish prove that illness, haste or a particular personal event interrupted the painting. Such an explanation would turn an observation about the image into a claim about Kahlo's working circumstances without a document connecting the two. The portrait remains interesting without that story: the contrast directs the eye towards the child's face, bow and hands. [1]
Portrait of Marta Patricia Procel in Kahlo’s career
The Two Fridas
1939Timeline source: Museo Frida Kahlo chronology [3].
The Name and the Museum Record
The 2021 list identifies the sitter as Marta Patricia Procel and assigns the work to 1951. It also names the Museo Frida Kahlo collection, but gives no present gallery location. A painting can belong to a museum without being on view there. [1]
An earlier report offers a narrow glimpse of the painting's museum history. In May 2009, a Notimex account of a proposed German-supported conservation project named Retrato de Marta Procel, Frida Kahlo among museum works intended for restoration. The shortened name probably refers to the same portrait, although the report gives no accession number or image with which to certify the match. [2]
That account describes a plan and says authorisation from Mexico's national arts authority would be sought. It does not report that the portrait was actually restored in 2009 or describe any treatment performed on it. [2]
The title itself does not establish who Marta Patricia was beyond the named sitter. Neither of the two historical accounts identifies her age, a commission, a visit to Kahlo's home or a personal relationship with the artist. Reading the child's bow as a deliberate echo of Kahlo's own childhood, or the held red form as a private biographical code, would similarly require evidence more exact than visual resemblance. [1] [2]
A Portrait Worth Seeing on Its Own Terms
Kahlo made other portraits of children, but this work has its own composition and its own unsettled documentary questions. Its direct gaze, high bow and colour concentrated around the hands deserve attention before it is folded into a general account of the artist's life. The museum-credited title and date give readers a foothold, while the visible picture offers a more particular encounter with a young person before the painter. [1]
The open passages do not need to be explained away. They change the pace of looking, moving the eye between the face's definition and the more spacious areas of dress and setting. Until a fuller object record becomes available, that observable tension is a stronger basis for understanding the portrait than a confident claim about its sitter, symbolism or state of completion. [1]
Related Reading
Frida Kahlo's portraits of other people places her named sitters in a broader context. The earlier Portrait of a Girl is a separate child portrait and should not be confused with this 1951 work. Frida Kahlo's biography gives the wider chronology without supplying undocumented details about Marta Patricia.
Discussion
Use the cited evidence and your own close looking to explain your view. The prompts below are starting points, not fixed interpretations.
Reader Insights
How do the red bow, dress accents and rounded form connect the child's face and hands?
What can be observed about the open passages without deciding why they appear that way?
What does the 2009 proposed-conservation report establish, and what does it leave unknown?
Join the Conversation
Which reading best fits the evidence, and where does uncertainty remain?
References
- La Jornada Estado de México, “10 obras que no conocías de Frida Kahlo,” 22 July 2021, item 3, “Retrato de Marta Patricia Procel. Frida Kahlo, 1951 – Colección Museo Frida Kahlo,” with museum information credit at the end of the list. The item supplies title, date, collection and an image for visual study; it is not the museum's registrar card. View source text.
- Notimex report carried by El Informador, “Participa Gobierno Alemán en restauración de la obra de Frida Kahlo,” 28 May 2009, section listing museum paintings to be restored and the subsequent authorisation statement. The report names Retrato de Marta Procel but does not document a completed treatment. View source text.
- Museo Frida Kahlo, Frida interactive chronology, selected work dates used for the comparison timeline. The current work's date follows its cited object record. View source text.
