Introduction
Frida Kahlo is one of the most well-known female painters and a feminist. In many ways, her art and life are reflections of one another. Kahlo is continuously regarded as a provocateur because she used her art to challenge customs, such as being a painter who was not a male artist. She was also the first major Latin American artist to be recognized internationally in her lifetime; the Day of the Dead became an annual celebration of Mexican culture worldwide through Kahlo’s paintings and their adoption in crafts made by Kahlo’s circle of friends. On the other hand, Kate Chopin is one of the most important American women writers, and during her lifetime, she was known as a feminist. Moreover, she became the first American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Awakening in 1899. The similarities between the two women are that they portrayed human conditions, were female artists who had occupations, both were married but had diverse personalities, and conveyed strong emotions in their work. Kahlo is unique because she was a female artist who was not limited by her physical disabilities, while Chopin was a successful writer in a male-dominated society.
Similarities and Differences Between Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin
Both Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin are female artists who portray the human condition. They were both romantically involved with men and married to them, though they were much different in personality. Frida Kahlo was a painter who lived in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution when she painted most of her famous works (Tolan, 2017). Frida is believed to have had polio as an infant, which left her physically disabled. Kate Chopin wrote short stories and novels set in the South after slavery was abolished but before Reconstruction began. She lived in Louisiana her whole life, but she made her name writing in New Orleans and St. Louis. She died from pneumonia at the age of 50. Frida and Kate were both talented artists who used literature to express their views about the world around them.
Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin did not have many similarities other than that they were female artists who did various artworks. Frida Kahlo painted human subjects while Kate Chopin wrote short stories, and their works were popular during the periods that they lived in. Frida lived in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, a time of violence and conflict between the government, wealthy landowners, and people from different ethnic backgrounds (Tolan, 2017). It is during this period that Frida painted most of her famous self-portraits. While the Mexican Revolution may have played a role in inspiring some of Frida’s paintings, Kate Chopin did not live long enough to witness huge events such as this. Her writing is based on her experiences growing up as a Creole in Louisiana.
While both artists were intimately involved with romantic relationships, their personalities differed significantly. Kate grew up as a Creole woman with a French father and Cajun mother who was raised in the deep south, where slavery had existed until after she was born. Kate’s stories express the disparity between the lifestyles of Creole and white women following slavery (Tolan, 2017). Frida was a passionate woman who had several affairs with men. Her most notable relationship was with her husband Diego Rivera, which was an artist himself and painted many paintings of Frida. Frida believed that she and Diego were meant for each other because she thought he had similar physical liabilities as she did, and the two artists would often paint self-portraits together.
Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin both used art to convey strong emotions or views about their experiences living in the South during different periods. Kate’s stories were mostly set in Louisiana, but she also lived most of her life there until moving to New Orleans to write professionally. Most of her stories are about Creole women and the lives that she observed while growing up. Her first novel, At Fault, tells the story of a Creole woman living in St. Louis before the Civil War who marries an arrogant man who is not faithful to her (Tolan, 2017). Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits express the pain, anger, and frustration she faced as a disabled person in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. She paints herself as a harsh and angry individual who does not care about what others think of her because everyone else is also hurting on the inside.
Interesting Facts Between Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin
The thing that is more interesting about Frida Kahlo is that she had various physical disabilities. Her crippled body is one reason that she became such a talented painter. She had to use her arms to walk, so she did not have much strength in them for anything else, which led to her never being able to have children (Tolan, 2017). Frida Kahlo is not like any typical artist (as most artists can walk). She painted portraits of herself and her unibrow and even wrote stories that were inspired by the physical pain she experienced. One story, in particular, was called “Dedication to Leon Trotsky” and was about a man who had an affair because his wife could not be intimate with him any longer because of her disability (Kahlo, Frida). Hence despite Frida Kahlo being disabled, she beat all the odds and became an artist.
On the other hand, what is more, interesting about Kate Chopin is that she was a successful woman during a time when success for women was almost unheard of. Her most famous work is The Awakening. In the book, Chopin tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman married to a man who does not give her enough attention. Edna Pontellier and her husband have children together, but Edna finds that she does not love her husband anymore, so she falls in love with a younger man (Tolan, 2017). She also loses interest in her children and takes up dancing and riding with men alone (a thing that was forbidden back then). Kate Chopin writes about how it is unfair that wealthy women get away with things while poor women are punished.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin were both talented artists who used literature to express their views about the world around them. They both lived in the South during different periods, but they both created artworks that helped them deal with the problems they faced living there. Their experiences and personalities were quite different, but in the end, their passion and determination drove them to succeed in their art fields. The main differences between Frida Kahlo and Kate Chopin are that Frida has multiple disabilities while Kate Chopin had no disability. Nonetheless, Frida’s paintings reflect her feelings of anger, suffering, and depression, while Kate’s short stories express the feeling of isolation and loneliness that Creole women in the South felt after slavery was abolished. Both women were famous artists who used literature to express their views of the world around them.
Reference
Tolan, F. (2017). Introduction (to the Margaret Atwood special issue).Contemporary Women’s Writing, 11(3), 291-296. Web.