Alice Neel, was an American visual artist known for her bold and empathetic portraits, which captured the essence of her subjects with honesty and depth. Neel's work spanned several decades and reflected the changing social and political landscape of 20th-century America.

Neel's artistic journey began in the early 1920s when she studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art & Design) and later at the Art Students League of New York. She initially worked in a realist style, depicting scenes of urban life and portraits of friends and family.

In the 1930s, Neel became involved with the burgeoning art scene in New York City, where she developed her distinctive style characterized by expressive brushwork, bold colors, and psychological insight. Her portraits often depicted friends, neighbors, and fellow artists, as well as prominent cultural figures and political activists.

Neel's work was deeply influenced by her own life experiences, including her struggles with poverty, motherhood, and mental illness. Her paintings were marked by a sense of empathy and humanism, capturing the complexities and contradictions of the human experience with honesty and compassion.

Despite facing rejection and marginalization from the male-dominated art world, Neel persisted in her artistic pursuits, producing a body of work that remains relevant and influential to this day. In the 1960s and 1970s, she gained wider recognition for her portraits of prominent feminists, civil rights leaders, and countercultural figures, cementing her reputation as one of America's most important portrait painters.