Olga Hirshhorn 1973

Larry Rivers made this pencil drawing, Olga Hirshhorn, probably in 1973. The lines feel like they’re feeling their way around the subject, searching and mapping the contours of her face, her neck, the elegant swirl of her hair. I bet Rivers was really looking, really seeing Olga. You know, it’s one thing to glance, but it's another to really *see* someone, to trace the lines of their being with your eyes and then try to capture it on paper. The smudging and soft shading give her a kind of gentle, ethereal quality. There's a real intimacy there. It reminds me a little of de Kooning’s portraits – the same kind of searching, restless line, the same desire to get at something beyond the surface. It’s like Rivers is saying, “I see you, Olga, and I’m trying to understand you.” And in the process, he’s inviting us to see her too, not just as a face, but as a person.