Alice Neel Self Portrait Analysis

In the 21th Century, you can rarely find an artist 's painting with such great value that has gained the popularity of a Rembrandt or a Neel self-portrait. They have merely vanished from the art scene. In 1669, Rembrandt van Rijn, a realism artist, painted one of his last self-portraits of himself, the same year that he died. He named it Self Portrait At The Age of 63. The painting originated from the Baroque style, a technique in which Rembrandt reflected shades of light. The National Gallery of Arts in London holds the primary location of this masterpiece painting (National Gallery). This painting came at a time when the Dutch Golden Age stood economically wealthy, growing trade, buying land and becoming very well established patricians. The middle class enriched the land with their wealth as goldsmiths, lawyers, doctors, craftsman, etc. The lower classmen, however, consisted of the poor, hard working laborers like the farmers and maids (Baer). Alice Neel 's most famous last pieces, a Self-Portrait of herself, shocked the world when she painted herself in the nude at the age of 80 (Hoban, 5). Neel 's unique style of painting, primarily the usage of line and color consisted with her Self-Portrait. (Walker). Neel, a 20th Century American Portrait Artist, and social realist painted models for over 50 years before turning the attention to herself (Garb). Her Self-Portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. When Neel painted her Self-Portrait, the 80 's pop culture had begun to populate (History.com) and women 's rights took on a more diverse

Though centuries apart, it is valuable to compare these works and look at the differences and similarities. Both Neel and Rembrandt 's Self-Portraits exemplified expressive emotions in their paintings and had huge impacts on the world in which they lived. For these reasons, it makes their work very interesting to compare. The dramatic effects, realism, and intensity in both paintings will also be