In happier news, an exhibition of Kahlo’s belongings is set to open at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London later this year, shedding a light on the internal life of the artist – and on the make up she wore.

’Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up’ will feature clothes, make up, jewellery and more – all of which had remained sealed in her house for fifty years after the death of her partner and collaborator Diego Rivera.

Two items will be particularly interesting to those who admired Kahlo’s style – her favourite lipstick, Everything’s Rosy by Revlon, and an eyebrow pencil, also by Revlon, that she used to accentuate her distinctive monobrow.

Plaster corsets, which Kahlo had to wear to support her back, will also go on display, many of them decorated by Kahlo herself. One corset, The Guardian reports, features a hammer and sickle; another has a small painting of a foetus on it, “presumably because she was unable to have children”.

“This is the real material evidence of the way Kahlo constructed her identity,” Claire Wilcox, senior curator of fashion at the V&A, told The Guardian.

“It’s so powerful and very exciting that these objects were saved.”

Images: Rex Features

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