Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Two Girls, Spanish Harlem
Alice Neel American
Not on view
Antonia and Carmen Encarnación, the young subjects in this double portrait, were the children of Neel's neighbor. The artist portrayed the girls unsentimentally, as was characteristic of her unflinching approach to depicting people from walks of life different from her own, and especially the poor and disenfranchised. Neel captures the sisters’ ambivalence toward her through painterly means—nervously arched brows frame their eyes as they regard the artist with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. The undefined, loosely painted pink and gray background amplifies the tense presence of their boldly sketched and tightly wound bodies, which nestle protectively against each other.
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