George Condo and Ashley Olson were spotted together at a Manhattan hotel. Photo: Patrick McMullan.

Gossip pages were abuzz yesterday as painter George Condo and child star-turned-fashion mogul Ashley Olsen were reportedly spotted together at New York’s fashionable Mercer Hotel in SoHo.

“It looked romantic,” an anonymous source cited told Page SixThe Daily Mail teased the encounter by saying two had been “romantically linked.”

Perhaps the speculation can be understood: Condo’s wife Anna—with whom he has two daughters—filed for divorce in 2015, whilst Ashley is rumored to be single after splitting from her former boyfriend Bennett Miller earlier this year.

However, beneath the headline, the real story seems to be considerably more workmanlike.

Skarstedt Gallery, which represents the 59-year-old painter confirmed to Page Six, “It was simply a business meeting. Mr Condo just finished [an] advertisement for the Row,” referring to the fashion brand founded by Olsen and her twin sister Mary-Kate.

The Olsen twins fashion brand ‘The Row’ unveiled this George Condo drawing on its website. Photo: screenshot via therow.com.

The celebrity twins recently commissioned Condo to create a drawing depicting the brand’s store on New York’s Upper East Side. The sketch has already been incorporated into the Row’s website.

It certainly isn’t the first time that Condo has crossed over into the realms of pop culture and fashion. The artist has worked with hip hop star Kanye West for the cover of his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the rapper also commissioned him to paint an Hermés bag, which West gave to his wife, Kim Kardashian.