During the peak of their sexual relationship, Rivers created a powerful, portrait of O'Hara titled O'Hara Nude with Boots (1954). In the life-size painting, the poet is depicted naked with one black-booted foot on a cinder block, his hands locked on the top of his head.

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Although their friendship continued, their sexual relationship eventually faded. As Rivers explained, "by the time Frank O'Hara took his last trip to Fire Island [O'Hara died on July 25, 1966, after he was struck by a dune buggy at night on Fire Island], my curiosity about homosexuals and life and sex among them had diminished. They were my friends and their exotic and erotic aura continued, but only as a warm glow in my memory."

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