Editing Alice Neel (section)

===Personal difficulties, themes for art===
Neel's daughter, Santillana, was born on December 26, 1926, in Havana.<ref name=Twenties/> In 1927, though, the couple returned to the United States to live in [[New York City|New York]].<ref name="Heroes and wretches" /> Just a month before Santillana's first birthday, she died of [[diphtheria]].<ref name="Heroes and wretches" /> The trauma caused by Santillana's death infused the content of Neel's paintings, setting a precedent for the themes of motherhood, loss, and anxiety that permeated her work for the duration of her career. Shortly following Santillana's death, Neel became pregnant with her second child.<ref name=Twenties/> On November 24, 1928, Isabella Lillian (called Isabetta) was born in New York City.<ref name=Twenties/> Isabetta's birth was the inspiration for Neel's ''Well Baby Clinic'', a bleak portrait of mothers and babies in a maternity clinic more reminiscent of an insane asylum than a nursery.

In the spring of 1930, Carlos had given the impression that he was going overseas to look for a place to live in Paris. Instead, he returned to Cuba, taking Isabetta with him. During the time of Enriquez's absence, Neel sublet her New York apartment and traveled to work in the studio of her friends and fellow painters [[Ethel V. Ashton]] and Rhonda Myers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alice Neel: Painted Truths|last=Lewison|first=Jeremy|year=2010|page=261}}</ref>

Mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, Neel had a nervous breakdown, was hospitalized, and attempted suicide.<ref name="Heroes and wretches" /> She was placed in the suicide ward of the [[Philadelphia General Hospital]].

{{blockquote|Even in the insane asylum, she painted. Alice loved a wretch. She loved the wretch in the hero and the hero in the wretch. She saw that in all of us, I think.|Ginny Neel, Alice's daughter-in-law<ref name="Heroes and wretches" />}}

Deemed stable almost a year later, Neel was released from the [[sanatorium]] in 1931 and returned to her parents' home. Following an extended visit with her close friend and frequent subject, Nadya Olyanova, Neel returned to New York.<gallery mode="nolines" widths="250">
File:Mother and Child by Alice Neel, 1927.jpg|''Mother and Child,'' 1927
File:After the Death of the Child by Alice Neel, 1927.jpg|''After the Death of the Child,'' 1927
File:Evening at Riverside Park by Alice Neel, 1927.jpg|''Evening at [[Riverside Park (Manhattan)|Riverside Park]],'' 1927
File:Untitled Cows in a Field by Alice Neel, 1927.jpg|''Untitled Cows in a Field'', 1927
</gallery>