Pattern

The backgrounds of Kehinde Wiley’s paintings are often fantastic and florid patterns, inspired by a variety of historical and contemporary sources.

Wiley fills the background of this painting with a floral pattern, likely inspired by this Blackthorn print by William Morris, a 19th-century British textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist. Wiley intensifies the print’s original more muted colors and extends some swirling vines on top of the main figure, as if the vegetation had sprung to life.