In May of 2020, in the middle of pandemic isolation, New York Magazine's art critic Jeff Saltz published an essay about this painting called, "This is the saddest picture I have every seen." He points out the boxed-in nature of the composition and how the viewer is forced to confront absolute hopelessness and isolation. He ends by saying, "A constant cry comes from this little picture. It is not Sartre's existential smirking, 'Hell is other people.' Rather, I hear something [that] I now hear more every day from so many reaching out of their seclusion: Hell is no other people."

Framed: `9.5" x 11.5" / Unframed: 4.25" x 6.75"

Reference Works:

• "The Outcast" by Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1496)