Portrait of Vasilli Pikoula is an explosion of color and pattern, along with being an exploration of putting paint down on the canvas. Pikoula was a Greek painter that Beauford befriended in Paris and with whom he showed in exhibitions.

This portrait is one of the few seated portraits Beauford completed. Pikoula’s proportions are distorted – her torso is elongated, yet her lower half is cramped to fit on the canvas.

Little information is available on Pikoula’s upbringing or her artistic career and production. In Beauford’s portrait of her she sits proud and regal, her head held high looking straight into the eyes of the viewer. Her body language, along with her feminine dress and pearls, portray her as someone who might be seen as very stoic or traditional. The fields of color in the background and on her dress tell a different story. The strokes and paint, made by paintbrush and palette knife, are lively and textured. From this, we can imagine that Beauford saw Pikoula as a cheerful and creative woman – someone who could sit for a seated portrait like royalty would, yet who was full of life and color.