Portrait of a Young Woman

Alice Pike Barney's pastel portrait demonstrates the artist's skill with color and form during the 1920s. Working primarily in portraiture, Barney captured her subjects with attention to individual character and subtle modeling. Her use of warm ochres and blues against the textured background shows technical command of the medium. Barney's career spanned decades of American art, and her work documents the aesthetic interests of her era through careful observation of facial features, expression, and the play of light across form.