This intimate account offers a new, unexpected understanding of the artist’s work and of the vibrant Surrealist art scene in the 1930s.

In 1939, devastated after the revelation that her husband had had an affair with her sister, Frida Kahlo left her home in Mexico and headed for Paris to rebuild her life and rediscover her art.

Now, for the first time, this missing part of Kahlo’s story is brought to light in exquisite detail. Marc Petitjean takes the reader to Paris with Kahlo, where she spends her time alongside luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Andre Breton, Dora Maar, and Marcel Duchamp.

Using Kahlo’s whirlwind romance with the author’s father, Michel Petitjean, as a jumping-off point, The Heart provides a striking portrait of the artist as she learns how to love–and ultimately how to paint–again.