The United States was sending more troops to Vietnam, and Mr. Hunter had recently found out he was one of them. During the session in her apartment, Ms. Neel outlined Mr. Hunter’s body, his hands, his legs and the chair on the five-foot-tall canvas. Mr. Als views these gestural marks outlining his legs, his jacket, his hand as a kind of memory of Mr. Hunter. But they could not locate Mr. Hunter or firmly establish his fate, only that he probably did not die in the Vietnam War. And she saved it and loved that painting as much as any.”The painting was kind of a bittersweet breakthrough for Ms. Neel, Ms. Baum said.

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Persons: Alice Neel, Ms, Neel, “, ”, Johnny Carson, Hartley, Ginny, Elizabeth, Hugh Hurd, ” Hartley, Ginny’s, Hilton Als, Neel’s, James Hunter, Hunter, Mr, Als, Hunter isn’t, Hunter didn’t, Kelly Baum, ” Ms, Baum, Alice Organizations: Puerto Ricans, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum Locations: Puerto, Los Angeles, United States, Vietnam, Spanish Harlem