“De Kooning had in mind a subject that had preoccupied him for over twenty years: the representation of a seated woman. He exhausted himself in a relentless struggle before tearing the canvas from its support and throwing it away. But then his friend, the art historian Meyer Shapiro, asked to see the discarded painting. It was taken out again and re-examined. Then, after a few alterations, it was declared finished, i.e. “not to be destroyed”. It is his most famous work and the genesis of his best work.”

Jean-Louis Ferrier, Le Point, June 25 1984 (trans.)
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