During his time in New York, Beauford painted portraits of the artists, writers and musicians with whom he fell into friendships. Gaylord, the subject of this portrait, was one of them. The Worcester Art Museum, where this portrait is on display, states that Gaylord’s identity is largely unknown. However, he is believed to be a pianist who played at a club Beauford frequented. Gaylord’s face is suspended among amorphous shapes of blue and green, a cityscape beneath him, a scene of him playing at the piano to his left and a scene of someone (who we can presume is Beauford) painting on an easel to his right. The interplay between the reds and blues that make up the palette of this painting, along with the animated nature of the brushstrokes, brings to mind works by Vincent Van Gogh. Beauford utilizes the same sense of movement in the painting’s forms as Van Gogh, one of his biggest influences at the time.