Larry Rivers agreed to paint this portrait because Joseph Hirshhorn was collecting his work. Hirshhorn sat for the portrait at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, while he talked on the telephone, doing business. A preliminary drawing demonstrates that Rivers accentuated Hirshhorn’s diminutive size in the painting by bringing his head below the top edge of the upholstered chair. The artist also drew attention to his subject’s short legs, having them dangle from the chair, which made him seem like a small jester rather than a titan of business.

In an article published in ARTnews, Rivers noted, “The only marks that were possible for me to make around 1955 added up to faces, limbs, breasts, leaves, chairbacks, etc.” And yet he also wanted to emphasize the surface—its abstract elements—“I thought of a picture as a surface the eye travels over in order to find delicacies to munch on.”