Alice Neel 1900–1984

In making a portrait, one critic observed, Alice Neel “hurls shafts that hit the mark but do not sting,” pinpointing the penetrating yet compassionate quality in the figure studies for which she is best known. Neel adhered to portraiture in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement and was consequently ignored by the art world until shortly before two retrospective exhibitions held during the early 1970s. “Life begins at seventy!” she said of her career’s newfound transformation.

In 1975, Neel began this shocking, endearing, and utterly unconventional self-portrait, one of only two she ever made. She took five years to complete the work and later, recalling the process, said, “the reason my cheeks got so pink was that it was so hard for me to paint that I almost killed myself painting it.” A striking challenge to the centuries-old convention of idealized femininity, Neel's only painted self-portrait is openly accepting of her aging body.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution