Portrait of Lisa Bigelow

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Artist Alfred Leslie (American, 1927 - 2023)

Title Portrait of Lisa Bigelow

Date 1964–1966

Medium Synthetic polymer on canvas

Dimensions Overall (left edge): 103 in. (261.6 cm)
Overall (right edge): 102 3/4 x 73 x 1 3/8 in. (261 x 185.4 x 3.5 cm)
Framed: 103 15/16 × 74 1/8 × 2 11/16 in. (264 × 188.3 × 6.8 cm)

Credit Line Museum purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 80.107

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About this Work

Alfred Leslie, who pioneered the renewal of interest in figurative painting in the 1960s, had completed over forty large grisaille (gray toned) portraits by 1966, when a fire in his studio destroyed all but three works from this series. Portrait of Lisa Bigelow, which depicts Leslie’s soon-to-be ex-wife, was one of the few survivors. Leslie referred to his grisaille portraits as “confrontational art,“ hoping to engage the viewer through the psychology of his subjects, while simultaneously challenging the anti-figurative bias of the 1960s art world.

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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Portrait of Lisa Bigelow | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=80.107