Alice Pike Barney, born Cincinnati, OH - An Oriental - 1927 - T-Shirt

A pastel head study of a dark-haired woman, her pale face lifted out of a deep grey-black ground by a high green collar.

Visual Elements & Composition

The figure fills the vertical frame, head and shoulders only. Her face is rendered in pale ivory and yellow-green, with a touch of subtle rose at the mouth, and her eyes are lowered. Dark bobbed hair is drawn close to the head, and the high green collar anchors the base of the composition. Near-black charcoal covers most of the surface, so the palette stays restricted to cool, dark and green-tinged tones with only a few warm accents. Nothing competes with the head.

Meaning & Symbolism

Alice Pike Barney, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, was an American painter and pastellist known for her portraits and for the Washington, D.C. salon she hosted. The title, An Oriental, names the subject as a type rather than an individual, a convention of the period in which a sitter's appearance stood for a broader category. Barney's later work favoured limited palettes and dark grounds to heighten the presence of a single figure, and this study, inscribed and dated 1927 at the upper left, is a clear example of that approach. The original pastel is held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

Designed for the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A head study works well on a tee because the image is contained within its own edges. The face is the only point of focus, so it reads clearly from across a room and up close alike. The quiet, inward gaze and the controlled colour make this a piece to wear with an easy, unhurried attitude.