"Double Portrait of Berdie... constitutes the most famous, or 'infamous,' representation of Rivers' mother-in-law. By depicting with merciless detail progressive images of its subject, one seated and the other upright, and moving toward the viewer's space, Rivers broke all the acceptable rules for avant-garde of the time. He points out, however, that even with such a realistic rendering of the subject, he created an 'overall' treatment of the painting's surface, a characteristic linking him, ironically with the then-dominant abstract expressionist style."

(Excerpt from the catalogue essay written by Jacquelyn Days Serwer for the exhibition
"Larry Rivers: Art and the Artist" at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in 2002)

Double Portrait of Berdie is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.