Soon after arriving in Paris, Beauford found a kind of soulmate in Larry Calcagno, an Abstract Expressionist from San Francisco who would become one of his lifelong friends. An Artistic Friendship: Beauford Delaney and Lawrence Calcagno by Joyce Henri Robinson explores the relationship and art production by the two. In the foreword, Beauford’s biographer, David Leeming, explained that Calcagno was always urging Beauford to fight his inner demons, sending money with his letters from New York after he left Paris, and leaving him much-needed art supplies. In Beauford’s portraits, Calcagno saw “penetrating truth.”

In this portrait of Beauford’s beloved friend, the quality of the paint and palette are soft and muted, the gaze straightforward and probing. Calcagno’s left hand is held up in the sign of benediction, the symbol for blessing in early Christian and Byzantine art. This is how Beauford viewed his friend and their relationship – so pure in nature that it became religious, a blessing.