Willem de Kooning 1986

This photograph shows the artist Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) in a head and shoulders shot, looking directly at the camera. His skin is freckled, his hair casually parted, and he is smiling slightly. He wears a white T-shirt, a large-collared, pale-coloured shirt, and a set of dark-coloured dungarees. His left dungaree strap rests on his shoulder, while the right strap has slipped down. The background, which is slightly out of focus, features a number of curved shapes with a painterly quality. A sweeping band just above de Kooning’s right shoulder is noticeably darker than the others, suggesting that the artist has been photographed in front of one of his own paintings.