Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
The Spanish Family
Alice Neel American
Not on view
Some of Neel’s first sitters in Spanish Harlem belonged to the family of José Santiago Negrón, father to her oldest son, Richard. Seen here are José’s sister-in-law, Margarita, and three of her children, Carlos, Margarita, and Tommy. Although it depicts Neel’s intimates, the painting itself projects little intimacy. Almost no current of warmth or affection travels between artist and sitters. The young boy is weary, his mother detached, and the girl distracted. This is typical of Neel’s honesty and insight into her sitters’ complex psychologies. Note, too, the attention Neel paid to the iron grillwork, whose curling, swirling lines echo those that enclose the figures, forming a dynamic, abstract composition.
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