Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
The Intellectual
Alice Neel American
Not on view
The Intellectual is a satirical watercolor depicting a young Neel, seen at the far left, in the company of two women, one of them her employer, store owner Fanya Foss (1906–1995). The work visualizes the tension between Neel’s creative ambitions and the demands of motherhood. While Foss and an unknown companion indulge in pursuits both mental and bodily, Neel, who pictures herself with an extra arm and leg, struggles to contain her energetic toddler. In a touch of cruelty cut with dry wit, Neel shows Foss with her deflated breasts exposed to view, a symbol of Foss’s decadence and pretension.
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