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Puerto Rican Girl on a Chair
Alice Neel American
Not on view
Neel’s keen interest in the culture and circumstances of New York’s Puerto Rican community deepened throughout her time living and working in Spanish Harlem, as can be seen in many portraits of individuals from the area. The artist was especially drawn to the neighborhood’s children, whose complex inner lives she sought to convey in paint. With her face and white skirt glowing in the darkened interior of Neel’s studio/home, the young sitter seems slightly dwarfed by the large chair on which she primly sits, doleful, quietly determined, and self-possessed in equal measure.