Robert Mapplethorpe was born in New York to a Catholic family. He studied drawing and sculpture at the Pratt Institute before turning his hand to photography. Mapplethorpe is best known for his black and white portraits, images of flowers and nude men, all of which had a highly sculptural quality to them. In the 1980s, he documented the New York S&M scene creating images that, whilst highly provocative, also reflected his technical mastery.

Mapplethorpe continued to challenge himself as an artist and worked with a range of photographic processes including photogravures, large scale colour Polaroids and platinum prints on paper and linen. He died of AIDS in 1989 but his diverse and highly provocative body of work established him as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.

In this black and white portrait, Mapplethorpe photographs American singer-songwriter Patti Smith holding two doves. The wild intensity of Smith’s gaze is somewhat lessened by the peaceful atmosphere created by the doves and the leaves of the draping plant to the right of the image. Smith was Mapplethorpe’s lover, long-time friend and muse, modelling for him on several occasions. This is one of many portraits that Mapplethorpe took of Smith during their lifelong friendship, through which time she became his most photographed subject.