Alice Neel Annotated Bibliography

"Alice Neel: Last Sickness." The University Art Museum. 30 Jan 2009 .

Although this source was very short, I found it very compelling and worth-while. There are only a few sentences about Alice Neel and the painting "Last Sickness". The woman in the portrait is in fact Neel’s mother. And when she was a child, her mother used to say to her "I don’t know what you expect to do in the world. You’re only a girl." Then later in life, the very woman that said this to her finds it difficult that she has no way to express herself. To me, that says so much more about the painting than I originally thought. Honestly it puts some pieces into place and it helps me get a better understanding of why her face is set in that manner. However the woman is still depicted as being strong by the bold colors of the robe and the hard shapes in the background.


Allara, Pamela. Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery. Washington DC: University Press of New England, 1998.

I found an entire book on her portraiture, so I specifically looked in the book for "Last Sickness". "Last Sickness" was finished in 1952, depicting Neel’s mother. In the book, it tells how Neel took care of her mother during the last moments of her life. I find it odd how the book says the robe in the painting resembles a shroud or a body bag. I also liked how the book noted the irony in Neel becoming the caretaker for the mother, rather than the other way around. I didn’t read the entire book, but it was an excellent source. Sadly, there was really only a small section on that particular painting.

"The Art of Alice Neel." Whitney Museum of American Art. 2008. Traditional Fine Arts Organization. 29 Jan 2009 .

This source was particularly handy for all aspects of Neel. It started off discussing her art and where they are now located, for devoted fans. It then launched into a short bibliography. Neel was apparently married to Carlos Enriquez and bore her first child, Santillana, who only lived for a year. Later on, she was separated from her second-born daughter, Isabetta, after a divorce. She went through many hardships, including a nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt. She worked for the W.B.A. as a painter during the Great Depression. It was then when she really explored portraiture. The one thing I find interesting about this source is how Neel referred to herself as a "collector of souls" rather than a portrait painter.