Alice Pike Barney, born Cincinnati, OH - The Feathered Hat - 1908 - T-Shirt

A pastel profile portrait shows a woman in a dark brimmed hat crowned with a tall, pale plume, set against loose strokes of green.

Visual Elements & Composition

The figure faces left in strict profile, her face lit softly against the shadow of a wide black brim. A large grey and white feather rises above the hat and curves back across the upper right of the sheet, balancing the dark mass of the brim and jacket. Her high collar is white, and a narrow band of gold and blue marks the edge of her dark jacket. The background is built from diagonal strokes of sage green and olive, giving the portrait a sense of open air. The vertical composition is quiet and restrained, with no text or numerals.

Meaning & Symbolism

Elaborate hats were fashionable around 1908, and here the plume becomes an emblem of style and modern elegance. The sitter's steady, distant gaze keeps the image focused on mood rather than incident. The work is by American painter Alice Pike Barney (1857-1931), born in Cincinnati, Ohio, best known for her pastel portraits and for the Washington, D.C., studio she built as a salon for artists and writers. Dated 1908, it belongs to the years when she produced many pastel portraits of women in fashionable dress, and her layered handling of the medium is visible in the green ground and the feathered hat.

Wearing the Portrait

A portrait of this kind is best seen up close, where the soft layering of pastel and the fall of light across the profile become clear. On a tee, the feathered silhouette and the green ground carry across the chest, so the composition reads as a calm, classic image worn in the same quiet spirit as the original sheet.