A rare self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is expected to shatter auction records when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby's on November 20. The painting, titled "El sueño (La cama)" or "The Dream (The Bed)" in English, carries an estimated price of $40 million to $60 million, potentially surpassing the current record for a work by any female artist. That record currently stands at $44.4 million, paid at Sotheby's in 2014 for Georgia O'Keeffe's "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1."
Kahlo's face has become one of the most recognizable in the art world, thanks to her bold and challenging self-portraits that vividly depicted her life experiences. However, "El sueño" represents a lesser-seen self-depiction by the artist, making it particularly valuable to collectors. The highest price at auction for a Kahlo work currently stands at $34.9 million, paid in 2021 for "Diego and I," which depicted the artist alongside her husband, muralist Diego Rivera. Reports suggest that her paintings have sold privately for even higher amounts.
"It's not just one of the more important works by Kahlo, but one of a few that exists outside of Mexico and not in a museum collection," explained Julian Dawes, vice chairman and head of impressionist and modern art for Sotheby's Americas. "So as both a work of art and as an opportunity in the market, it could not be more rare and special."
Painted in 1940, "El sueño (La cama)" showcases Kahlo's distinctive artistic style and symbolic imagery. The painting depicts the artist wreathed in vines, lying in a four-poster bed that appears to float in a pale blue sky. Above her, a skeleton wired with dynamite and clutching a bouquet of flowers lies atop the bed's canopy. While the image explodes with symbolism and feels like an allegory, Kahlo actually did have a papier-mâché skeleton positioned on top of her real bed.
Kahlo's artistic journey was deeply influenced by personal tragedy and physical suffering. Her life was dramatically altered by a bus accident when she was just 18 years old, which left her bedridden and in chronic pain. She began painting during her recovery, underwent numerous painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, and wore casts until her death in 1954 at age 47. Her vibrant and unflinching self-portraits drew directly from these life experiences, creating works that were both deeply personal and universally resonant.
According to Dawes, "El sueño" represents a psychological self-portrait created during Kahlo's artistic peak. "Her greatest works derive from this moment between the late 1930s and the early 1940s," he noted. "She has had a variety of tribulations in her romantic life with Diego, in her own life with her health, but at the same time she's really at the height of her powers."
The painting hasn't been exhibited publicly since the late 1990s, adding to its mystique and desirability among collectors. It serves as the centerpiece of a major sale featuring more than 100 surrealist works by renowned artists including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning. All pieces come from a single private collection, though the owner's identity has not been disclosed.
The timing of this sale coincides with a remarkable surge in interest and prices for surrealist art. A century after André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto defined the revolutionary artistic movement characterized by unsettling juxtapositions and paradoxical statements, the market for such works is experiencing unprecedented growth. According to Sotheby's data, Surrealism's share of the art market jumped dramatically from 9.3% to 16.8% between 2018 and 2024. This trend was highlighted last year when Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" sold for $121.2 million, setting a record for a surrealist work.
While Kahlo herself resisted being labeled a surrealist, Dawes argues that her fascination with the subconscious and use of otherworldly imagery place her firmly within that artistic tradition. He believes the current resurgence of surrealism reflects broader cultural parallels between different eras. "There are so many interesting parallels between the 1920s and the 2020s," Dawes observed. "Coming out of a crippling global pandemic, a world that has to confront war on a more graphic and intimate level that had ever been experienced before – and economic and political and social forces swirling in the background that are eerily similar."
Before the November 20 auction in New York, "El sueño" will be displayed at Sotheby's in London until Tuesday, followed by exhibition stops in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Paris. This global tour will give art enthusiasts and potential bidders around the world the opportunity to view this exceptional work in person before it potentially makes art market history.
