Head of Comity

Judith Raphael is an American figurative painter and educator based in Chicago. She is known for provocative depictions of childhood, particularly contemporary girlhood and its passage toward adulthood. This work emerged in the wake of feminism, and in style and content, was influenced by figurative painters such as Paula Rego, Balthus and Lucian Freud. Her paintings often recast heroic art-historical portrayals of men with contemporary girls in order to redress the paucity of strong female icons in Western art. Writer Carol Becker said of Raphael's later portraits, "[her] girls are different races and sizes, and each one's face and posture is unique, but they share attitude. Although they are hip, they seem not yet secure in who they are or what they are about; they appear to be trying to construct their identities."