SEATED ON AN ARMLESS MUSTARD-GREEN CHAIR, MARGAret Evans is nude and pregnant. The evidence of pregnancy’s toll appears throughout her body: in the blue vein that ripples along one breast, her mottled legs, her flushed face. She looks out at us, confident and calm, but also carries some tension, as her arms seem to grip the seat, perhaps to hold herself upright in the pose.
Painted late in Alice Neel’s career, when the artist was 78, Margaret Evans Pregnant (1978) provokes a feeling of wonder and awe. How could someone have captured another person’s essence, this almost soulful likeness, in paint? There seem to be two subjects: the sitter herself and the physical fact of her pregnancy, which is depicted without a value judgment, as neither a life-affirming force nor…