Elaine de Kooning’s Denise (1963) comes from the peak of her portrait practice, painted the same year as her John F. Kennedy portraits. The sitter is most likely Denise Lassaw, de Kooning’s goddaughter and the daughter of the American sculptor Ibram Lassaw, a friend of the de Koonings.

A young woman sits with her hands near her knees, her eyes fixed on the viewer and her loose auburn hair floating around her face. She wears what looks like a blazer over denim, in quick strokes of navy, cobalt, and slate. Broad, loose sweeps of gray, ochre, and brown build the abstract ground behind her; only her face and hands are rendered closely. At lower left, a stretch of bare canvas carries the date and the artist’s signature.

The National Portrait Gallery’s John F. Kennedy (1963, oil on canvas) shares this painting’s approach: a seated figure built from broad swaths of color. Acquired directly from the artist’s estate, Denise has never been on the market.

Lassaw sat often for her godmother while de Kooning lived on Broadway. “I used to be her secretary,” she recalled. “Elaine was my godmother and I used to come from high school and go to her house. I’d check the mail, clean the brushes, make sandwiches and then I would pose.” That ease shows in her steady, unguarded gaze.