Artist

Alice Neel

born Merion Square, PA 1900-died New York City 1984
Media - portrait_image_114775.jpg - 90471
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, © Estate of Alice Neel, 1980
Also known as
  • Alice Hartley Neel
Born
Merion Square, Pennsylvania, United States
Died
New York, New York, United States
Biography

Born in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, Alice Neel graduated from the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art) in 1925. She was a portrait painter whose work cut across the social classes. She once described herself as a "collector of souls," and lived much of her adult life in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City. From 1935 to 1943, Neel was employed by the W.P.A. Federal Art Project, Easel Division. She was also included in a group exhibition of acclaimed women artists in Washington, D.C., in 1979, entitled Women's Caucus for Art Honors Bishop, Burke, Neel, Nevelson, O'Keeffe.

Therese Thau Heyman Posters American Style (New York and Washington, D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998)

Works by this artist (1036 items)

William H. Johnson, Self-Portrait, ca. 1923-1926, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.679
Self-Portrait
Dateca. 1923-1926
oil on canvas
On view
William H. Johnson, Young Pastry Cook, ca. 1928-1930, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.693
Young Pastry Cook
Dateca. 1928-1930
oil on canvas
On view
William H. Johnson, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1935-1938, oil on burlap, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.814
Portrait of a Man
Dateca. 1935-1938
oil on burlap
On view
William H. Johnson, Ferry Boat Trip, ca. 1943-1944, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.1011
Ferry Boat Trip
Dateca. 1943-1944
oil on paperboard
On view

Related Books

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Crosscurrents: Modern Art from the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection
In eighty-eight striking paintings and sculptures, Crosscurrents captures modernism as it moved from early abstractions by O’Keeffe, to Picasso and Pollock in midcentury, to pop riffs on contemporary culture by Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, and Tom Wesselmann—all illustrating the complexity and energy of a distinctly American modernism.