Renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted “Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937” (also called “Between the Curtains”) as a birthday gift for the Russian politician. After Trotsky’s political rival Joseph Stalin chased him into exile, Kahlo (1907 – 1954) and husband Diego Rivera took Trotsky and his wife into their home. Trotsky and Kahlo secretly became lovers, but Kahlo soon tired of him and ended the affair. Kahlo gave Trotsky this self-portrait on his birthday, but when he moved out of her house, he left the painting behind. The artwork is now displayed in Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of Women in the Arts.

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