In 1953, de Kooning shocked the art world by exhibiting his "Women" paintings. These aggressively painted figural works were seen by some as a betrayal of Abstract Expressionist principles. The Women paintings represented a commitment to the figurative tradition when artists like Pollock and Kline were moving away from representational imagery to pure abstraction. De Kooning was fond of working on paper, as it allowed for an immediacy that appealed to him.
Inscribed on the lower right the drawing reads “To Max for Old Times Sake” Bill / de Kooning.” Max likely refers to Max Margulis, a friend, musician, and writer in the downtown New York milieu of artists and intellectuals in the post-war period. Margulis was known as affectionately as “Max the Owl” for his horn-rimmed glasses.