Reading a biography of Simone de Beauvoir in the late 1990s revealed to me that this French intellectual visited the U.S., where she fell in love with novelist Nelson Algren. The two engaged in a passionate affair that nevertheless was short lived, as each was so strongly tied to a particular city--de Beauvoir to Paris and Algren to Chicago. The story inspired me to read de Beauvoir's post-W.W. II novel The Mandarins and Algren's novel The Man with the Golden Arm--and to paint this portrait of Algren. The sharp lines of the hair offer a pleasing contrast with the coat's soft, watery quality; they combine to frame those world-weary eyes behind almost disappearing glasses.
