Together/Alone

Alice Neel (1900–84) was a twentieth-century American artist, known for her portraits in an expressionist style. Her 1973 painting The Soyer Brothers is a large canvas that captures the brothers Moses and Raphael Soyer. The Soyers were Russian-born Jews whose family emigrated to the United States, and who were themselves artists and painters. Neel depicts the brothers later in life—in fact, just a year before Moses’s death. Neel’s striking portrayal of the brothers has them seated on a bench in a room with a blank grey wall and an earthen-coloured floor. The brother on the right is the more dominant figure, looking directly at the viewer in an engaging manner. And yet, his pose is protective and defensive, with folded hands and crossed legs. His facial expression suggests an anxious or wary disposition. The brother on the left, meanwhile, is further away, and his grey suit causes him almost to fade into the background. He does not look at the viewer, but with hand on chin gazes off in a distracted manner. Along with these differences, we can see that while they are seated close to one another, they are not touching: there is a small gap that remains between them. Have they been arguing? Is there an underlying tension between these brothers? Or perhaps a resignation that comes with longstanding familiarity? Neel’s portrait captures the complex relationship of siblings, in which similarities can be so evident, and yet significant differences can lurk not far from the surface. Like the reunion of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33, Neel’s portrayal of these brothers reminds us that while familial relationships are very often those that are most important to us, they can also be the most complicated relationships in our lives. References Greenspahn, Frederick E. 1994. When Brothers Dwell Together: The Preeminence of Younger Siblings in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press)