La Venadita (The Wounded Deer) by Frida Kahlo (Interpretation and Analysis)

La Venadita
Source: WikiArt

There is perhaps no better known female artist than Frida Kahlo. Her face is familiar to nearly everyone in the Western world; it is featured on posters, t-shirts, and mugs and has been co-opted by fashion designers and even (strangely) used to sell cosmetic products. Part of this obsession with her image is due to the fact that Kahlo herself produced many, many self portraits throughout her career. 

For Kahlo, art was often a personal journey. As a young woman, Kahlo was seriously injured in a bus accident. Although she survived, she suffered severe pain and health problems for the rest of her life and was often confined to her bed for long periods of time. As such, her art became very introspective. A great deal of her work deals with her physical and psychological pain and the challenges and disappointments that she faced during her life.

Although the outer world was often physically inaccessible to Kahlo, her paintings allowed her to express her rich, inner life. Her style was fantastical. Although some art historians have labelled her as a surrealist, Kahlo herself understood her art to be an expression of her own lived experiences infused with the unique religious and cultural traditions of Mexico. As Kahlo famously noted, “I didn't know I was a Surrealist until André Breton came to Mexico and told me so.”

La Venadita is a fine example of her work. Here, Kahlo depicts herself as a wounded deer, running through the woods. Her humanoid head gazes at the viewer with calm assurance while the body of the deer bleeds profusely from many arrow wounds. It is a fantastical and surreal image, both horrifying and fascinating. Kahlo completed the painting after a failed spinal operation, which she hoped would help with her back pain. She used her pet deer, Granizo, as the model for this piece, which expresses both her disappointment and her resignation to a life of suffering. Like the deer, Kahlo continues through the forest of life injured and bleeding, although not yet defeated.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.