[3] Hockney had originally planned to depict Webster in his house in Harley Street in the Marylebone district of London.

[1] The painting demonstrates Hockney's technical mastery of acrylic paint; in their essay accompanying its 2020 sale Christie's praises the artists "layers of tonal gradation that contribute to the work's rich chiaroscuro effects" with the folds in Webster's suit being "a triumph of textural manipulation, while fine strokes of colour pick out the strands of his hair and the metallic glow of the chair leg.

[1] In a 1975 article Architectural Digest described Webster as "coldly indifferent to the empty background" in the painting and critiqued the "lonesome tulips" and described the lighting of the scene as "flat", "icily arrogant" and "dry".

[9] It was put up by the Royal Opera House for auction at Christie's in 2020 due to a decline in their income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

[3][4] The Royal Opera House lost 60% of its income since its closure in March 2020 as a result of the national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chief executive of the opera house, Alex Beard, said that there was no alternative to the sale of the painting as the survival of the institution was at risk.

In addition to selling the portrait, the opera house has applied to the British government's Culture Recovery Fund for a loan, and plans significant redundancies and a fundraising drive.