The painting diverged from the formal style that characterises many official paintings of politicians. Brown said of his portrait that it looked "unfinished" and reflected his "unfinished work while in office." The "Sacramento Bee", in an online guide to the California State Capitol said that "Between calm and conservative portraits of his peers, Brown's face peers out of gray bars and drips of red paint." Critics of the portrait described it as "abstract", "cubist" or "expressionistic", though as the authors of the "United States Senate Catalogue of Fine Art" wrote "Those are merely code words for ‘modern’—indicating not what Brown's portrait is, but what it is not", emphasising the fact that the painting is not a classic, formal portrait.