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Lot Essay
A striking portrait of the identical twin daughters of sculptor and art restorer Geza de Vegh, Alice Neel’s The De Vegh Twins is an absorbing example of her powerful late work. The mysterious twins contain whole worlds within their united gaze, as is characteristic of Neel’s complex portraits. Illustrated in important volumes on the artist’s work and exhibited at two prestigious university museums, The De Vegh Twins captures the essence of Neel’s portraiture. The present work straddles the line of figuration and abstraction in the tradition of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, and thereby solidifies Neel’s place among the most celebrated of modern painters. The De Vegh Twins, simultaneously otherworldly and familiar, is an important precursor to the renewed interest in representational painting today.
The present work investigates closeness and estrangement within the domestic sphere. The eponymous sisters are both connected to and separate from their environment. Neel’s expressive marks unite the canvas, even as the twins’ bright red dresses set them apart, recalling John Singer Sargent’s epic masterpiece The Daughters of Edward Darley (1882, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Despite being twins, Neel represents them with slight differences, arguing for difference within sameness. The sumptuous background is equally detailed. A red rug matches the twin’s clothing, and these bold colors are offset by a purple dresser and yellow-green wall. Neel’s painterly choices in The De Vegh Twins create a surreal scene, like a landscape by Vincent van Gogh or Wayne Thiebaud, and yet her signature imagery is her own. The twins are statuesque and placid, even as they vibrate with the arrested motion suggested by Neel’s marks. In works like The De Vegh Twins, she captures an in-between space, “Acutely observing and repeating gestures and mannerisms, Neel paints and draws her figures, not quite still, as if in the moment between physical fidgets, while the proportions she finds in some parts of her sitters reveal her emotional reading” (M.K. Palomar, “Alice Neel: Painted Truths,” Studio International, August 9, 201). A painter of detail, Neel reveals so much about her subjects within a single image.
Twins, and sisterhood more generally, are a frequent presence in art history, “An unusual and intriguing subject to paint, twins provided artists with the challenge of capturing uncanny symmetry, sameness, yet also nuanced difference” (L. Figes, “Seeing Double: A Twin Fixation in Art and Culture,” Art UK, August 1, 2019). Perhaps the most immediate comparison with The De Vegh Twins is with Diane Arbus’s Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey (1967), though Neel’s painting does not exhibit the same sinister quality. The De Vegh Twins might call to mind Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs (c. 1594), a legendary painting of the Fontainebleau School. John Everett Millais’s Sisters (1868) and The Twins, Kate and Grace Hoare (1876) have a similar transcendental calm as The De Vegh Twins. With its bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, The De Vegh Twins also resonates with Mary Cassatt’s The Sisters (1885, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow). The De Vegh Twins shares with all of these works a universal urge for connection and the comforts of family life.
Her choice to live in Spanish Harlem and paint everyday working-class people placed her in a self-imposed isolation from New York’s burgeoning art world. But this isolation was perhaps what allowed her to pursue her extremely individual path of painting realistic images of people.(H. Molesworth, Alice Neel: Freedom, New York, 2019, p. 16).
Neel’s unique form of realism, which by 1975 was well-regarded worldwide, stems from her unique life both within and outside the art world. In her 20s, Neel lived in Havana, Cuba with her husband, and came of age as an artist among the Cuban avant-garde. She lived in poverty during the Great Depression, finally earning a modest living through the Public Works of Art Project and the Works Progress Administration. This experience of financial precarity was a generative factor that inspired Neel’s career-long dedication to realism. Curator and scholar Helen Molesworth writes, “Her choice to live in Spanish Harlem and paint everyday working-class people placed her in a self-imposed isolation from New York’s burgeoning art world. But this isolation was perhaps what allowed her to pursue her extremely individual path of painting realistic images of people” (H. Molesworth, Alice Neel: Freedom, New York, 2019, p. 16). Neel’s paintings of famous artists and writers alongside her other friends, colleagues, and, in this case, their children lend compelling earnestness to her oeuvre that remains as relevant today.
Neel carved out a legacy for herself that has inspired generations of painters. Indeed, “Neel’s work stands out as brash, alive, and refreshingly blunt. Powerful brushstrokes animate sinuous lines that in turn define posture and personality” (A. Buckley, “Critics’ Picks: Alice Neel,” Artforum, 2010). The De Vegh Twins certainly has personality; its charm feels both timeless and of a fecund moment in time. Above all, Neel gives these children, who many would not know personally, the serious treatment of a portrait. The De Vegh Twins evinces that everyone deserves to be seen and represented as individuals who live interesting and meaningful lives.
The present work investigates closeness and estrangement within the domestic sphere. The eponymous sisters are both connected to and separate from their environment. Neel’s expressive marks unite the canvas, even as the twins’ bright red dresses set them apart, recalling John Singer Sargent’s epic masterpiece The Daughters of Edward Darley (1882, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Despite being twins, Neel represents them with slight differences, arguing for difference within sameness. The sumptuous background is equally detailed. A red rug matches the twin’s clothing, and these bold colors are offset by a purple dresser and yellow-green wall. Neel’s painterly choices in The De Vegh Twins create a surreal scene, like a landscape by Vincent van Gogh or Wayne Thiebaud, and yet her signature imagery is her own. The twins are statuesque and placid, even as they vibrate with the arrested motion suggested by Neel’s marks. In works like The De Vegh Twins, she captures an in-between space, “Acutely observing and repeating gestures and mannerisms, Neel paints and draws her figures, not quite still, as if in the moment between physical fidgets, while the proportions she finds in some parts of her sitters reveal her emotional reading” (M.K. Palomar, “Alice Neel: Painted Truths,” Studio International, August 9, 201). A painter of detail, Neel reveals so much about her subjects within a single image.
Twins, and sisterhood more generally, are a frequent presence in art history, “An unusual and intriguing subject to paint, twins provided artists with the challenge of capturing uncanny symmetry, sameness, yet also nuanced difference” (L. Figes, “Seeing Double: A Twin Fixation in Art and Culture,” Art UK, August 1, 2019). Perhaps the most immediate comparison with The De Vegh Twins is with Diane Arbus’s Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey (1967), though Neel’s painting does not exhibit the same sinister quality. The De Vegh Twins might call to mind Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs (c. 1594), a legendary painting of the Fontainebleau School. John Everett Millais’s Sisters (1868) and The Twins, Kate and Grace Hoare (1876) have a similar transcendental calm as The De Vegh Twins. With its bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, The De Vegh Twins also resonates with Mary Cassatt’s The Sisters (1885, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow). The De Vegh Twins shares with all of these works a universal urge for connection and the comforts of family life.
Her choice to live in Spanish Harlem and paint everyday working-class people placed her in a self-imposed isolation from New York’s burgeoning art world. But this isolation was perhaps what allowed her to pursue her extremely individual path of painting realistic images of people.(H. Molesworth, Alice Neel: Freedom, New York, 2019, p. 16).
Neel’s unique form of realism, which by 1975 was well-regarded worldwide, stems from her unique life both within and outside the art world. In her 20s, Neel lived in Havana, Cuba with her husband, and came of age as an artist among the Cuban avant-garde. She lived in poverty during the Great Depression, finally earning a modest living through the Public Works of Art Project and the Works Progress Administration. This experience of financial precarity was a generative factor that inspired Neel’s career-long dedication to realism. Curator and scholar Helen Molesworth writes, “Her choice to live in Spanish Harlem and paint everyday working-class people placed her in a self-imposed isolation from New York’s burgeoning art world. But this isolation was perhaps what allowed her to pursue her extremely individual path of painting realistic images of people” (H. Molesworth, Alice Neel: Freedom, New York, 2019, p. 16). Neel’s paintings of famous artists and writers alongside her other friends, colleagues, and, in this case, their children lend compelling earnestness to her oeuvre that remains as relevant today.
Neel carved out a legacy for herself that has inspired generations of painters. Indeed, “Neel’s work stands out as brash, alive, and refreshingly blunt. Powerful brushstrokes animate sinuous lines that in turn define posture and personality” (A. Buckley, “Critics’ Picks: Alice Neel,” Artforum, 2010). The De Vegh Twins certainly has personality; its charm feels both timeless and of a fecund moment in time. Above all, Neel gives these children, who many would not know personally, the serious treatment of a portrait. The De Vegh Twins evinces that everyone deserves to be seen and represented as individuals who live interesting and meaningful lives.