Private Collection, USA Self Portrait dedicated to Dr. Eloesser (1940) Towards the end of 1939, Frida began to suffer increased back pain and developed an acute fungal infection in her right hand. At the recommendation of Dr. Eloesser, her long-time friend and doctor, Frida traveled to San Francisco to see him for treatment. In thanks for the treatment that stabilized her condition, she painted this self-portrait for him. The dedication inscribed on the banderole at the bottom reads: "I painted my portrait in the year 1940 for Doctor Leo Eloesser, my doctor and my best friend. With all my love. Frida Kahlo." The earrings she is wearing were a gift from Pablo Picasso whom she met while in Paris. The hand on the banderole as well as on the earrings, makes reference at what is called in Mexico "milagros". Milagros are pieces made of wax or ivory shaped in the form of the part of the human body that the person wants to be healed, and left on the altar of the Saint they pray to. The necklace of thorns around her neck is a reminder of the pain from which Dr. Eloesser freed her. It was Dr. Eloesser who later convinced Diego to reconcile and marry Frida for a second time. This painting may have been a "Thank You" gift for Dr. Eloesser's efforts. When Dr. Eloesser died in 1994, he willed the painting to his long time companion Joyce Campbell. Campbell didn't really like the painting and described it as "...a garish, unlikable, unsettling painting...I could never have lived with it." Not long after she received the painting she sold it. www.fridakahlofans.com/c0360.html