Kitaj visited Hamburg in 1985 and witnessed this scene while out for a walk in the St.

Pauli district, the artist appears to the left of the painting. He described seeing the young man as 'not exactly an Elephant Man, but some halfway point there...malformed throughout his body'. Kitaj followed the man to a brothel where he hovered at the entrance but did not enter. Kitaj also mentions the snake-like tree, 'Adonis was born from a tree and relates to my anti-Adonis.'

Provenance

The artist.


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