Now held in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, this portrait of the American composer, Howard Swanson, is garish and may make the viewer slightly uncomfortable. Beauford met Swanson in Paris when the composer was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The two developed a strong friendship – David Leeming states in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney that Beauford could talk more freely with Swanson than with most people.

This portrait, similar to many of the other ones Beauford was producing at this time, exudes a yellow glow – not only from the background, but also from Swanson’s face. However, Swanson’s face does not convey the lightness or serenity present in other portraits by Beauford. His mouth is turned up into a grimace and his eyes are wide and frightened, almost lopsided. It is possible that Beauford was projecting some of his own inner turmoil at the time into the painting, either from his delusions or from the fact that Swanson had left for New York one year prior to the production of this painting.