We present deep wide field ( 16 ^ { \prime } .4 \times 16 ^ { \prime } .4 ) Washington CT _ { 1 } CCD surface photometry of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4472 , the brightest member in the Virgo cluster .
Our data cover a wider field than any previous CCD photometry as well as going deeper .
Surface brightness profiles of NGC 4472 are not well fit by a single King model , but they can be fit approximately by two King models : with separate models for the inner and outer regions .
Surface brightness profiles for the outer region can also be fit approximately by a deVaucouleurs law .
There is clearly a negative color gradient within 3 ^ { \prime } of NGC 4472 , in the sense that the color gets bluer with increasing radius .
The slope of the color gradient for this region is derived to be \Delta \mu ( C - T _ { 1 } ) = –0.08 mag arcsec ^ { -2 } for \Delta \log r = 1 , which corresponds to a metallicity gradient of \Delta [ Fe/H ] = -0.2 dex .
However , the surface color gets redder slowly with increasing radius beyond 3 ^ { \prime } .
A comparison of the structural parameters of NGC 4472 in C and T _ { 1 } images has shown that there is little difference in the ellipse shapes between isochromes and isophotes .
In addition , photometric and structural parameters of NGC 4472 have been determined .