Alice Pike Barney, born Cincinnati, OH - Circe - n.d. - T-Shirt

A pastel portrait of a long-haired woman with wind-stirred auburn hair, her bare shoulder turned beside a bristled grey animal under a pale sea-coloured sky.

Visual Elements & Composition

The composition is a tall, vertical portrait, with the woman's face and hair filling the upper half. Her hair streams around her head and shoulders in flowing strokes of amber, copper and gold, and those warm tones dominate the image. Her skin is modelled in cool, pearly creams that lift her face out of the darker ground. Below her, the grey animal form, its head turned toward the lower left, anchors the bottom of the picture. The background is a soft, cloudy blue-grey, with a faint horizon line that suggests open water. The work has no text or numerals.

Meaning & Symbolism

The title names Circe, the sorceress of Greek myth who lived on the island of Aiaia. In Homer's Odyssey, she transforms the companions of Odysseus into swine. The bristled creature and the seaside setting draw directly on that story, while the figure's untamed hair and unguarded gaze carry the enchantress's dangerous allure. Alice Pike Barney (1857-1931), an American painter and salon host associated with Washington, D.C., made the original pastel. She favoured soft surfaces and misty, luminous grounds over hard outlines, and this work shows that interest in mood. The original is held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

On the Tee

The vertical composition suits the chest of a tee, where the figure sits centred and the hair rises toward the shoulders. Her gaze is directed outward, so she meets whoever looks at the wearer, and the mythic story carries across a room as well as up close. The sea-coloured background frames the upper body, giving the wearer a quiet, dreamlike image to carry through the day.