Alice Neel

Known for painting with extreme frankness, yet also tenderness, Alice Neel is one of the greatest portraitists of the 20th century. Her subjects ranged from single mothers and overlooked African American writers to friends, lovers, society figures, and strangers — painted from memory or in her home.

Dorothy Pullman belongs to Neel’s works of the late 1930s and 40s, which are both documentary and expressionist. Living under challenging economic circumstances with her children in Spanish Harlem, New York, from 1938, she focused on portraying working-class individuals, women, children and immigrants. Pullman, a nurse whom Neel first met in 1941 after the birth of her youngest son, became one of her sitters.

The work's loose brushwork and stark palette intensify its emotional charge, emphasizing presence over voyeurism. Contrary to the male gaze in art history, Neel used painting to expose oppression and reveal real social relations. As she declared, “Every person is a new universe unique with its own laws,” underscoring her commitment to each sitter’s dignity and individuality.