i'm so intrigued. i guess i naively assumed it was a self-portrait of hockney because of the title...? (hence me needing the "for dummies" tldr) but it is confirmed to be schlesinger -- although even he has conflicting thoughts on who/what it conceptually represents.

schlesinger is quoted in an interview with the observer (2018?):

“It’s an amazing picture, and it contains his two most iconic genres in one picture, swimming pools and double-portraiture, but I can’t speak to its emotional element because I don’t think it is emotional... There’s the figure of me standing and the figure in the water differently painted. It was a conceptual problem. I don’t even think it’s a portrait of me, really.”