Portrait of Mr Bill

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The Washington National Gallery of Art (the USA).

This slightly ironic post-impressionist portrait depicts a young and strong man. “Mr Bill” is the name that the artist gave to his good friend, artist Willem de Kooning, a native of Holland. Like Gorky, de Kooning immigrated to the United States before the outbreak of World War II and took a central place in Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s. The portrait was made in a manner typical of that period, that is, using large planes of faded, as if burnt, colours and a schematic study of the characters’ hands. These grotesquely big hands similar to boxing gloves make a strange contrast with the refined and slightly sad face of the Dutch painter.