Frida Kahlo Museum

The Blue House

The house takes its name from its cobalt-blue walls

The Frida Kahlo Museum is also known as La Casa Azul, the Blue House, for its cobalt-blue walls. The house in Coyoacán was built in 1904 around a central courtyard, and Kahlo was born there in 1907.

Convalescing

After an accident at 18 she spent two years in bed and began to paint

Kahlo spent a large amount of time in the house convalescing. In 1918 she was struck with polio. At 18, a trolley accident left her badly mangled, and she was confined to her bed for about two years. It was then she began to paint.

A guest

Trotsky was first housed in the Blue House in January 1937

Because of intervention by Kahlo and Rivera, Leon Trotsky obtained asylum in Mexico. Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, were first housed in La Casa Azul starting in January 1937.

The rooms

The rooms are kept much as they were in 1951

According to records, the house looks much as it did in 1951. It holds Mexican folk art, Kahlo's personal art collection, pre-Hispanic artifacts, traditional Mexican cookware, and personal mementos such as photographs, postcards and letters.

tenrooms make up the museum

Upstairs

Her upper-floor bedroom keeps the corset and the mirror she painted with

Her final bedroom and studio are on the upper floor, in the wing Rivera had built. A painted plaster corset lies on the bed, and under the canopy is a mirror she used to paint her many self-portraits. Her ashes are on display in an urn.