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

A dark-haired woman in profile, eyes lowered, sits beside a single white waterlily in this pastel portrait by Alice Pike Barney.

Visual Elements & Composition

The woman faces left, her dark hair dressed high and full and bound with a broad white ribbon. Her face is softly modelled in pale rose and cream, and her neck and shoulder dissolve into the grey ground at the lower right. In the lower left, a white waterlily opens above a faint wash of blue-green, its petals built up in pale chalk with touches of yellow at the centre. The dominant tone is smoky warm grey, scumbled with lighter strokes. Charcoal, ivory and soft blue-grey appear in small measure, so the palette stays restrained and the eye settles on the outline of the head.

Meaning & Symbolism

The waterlily is a long-established emblem of purity and serenity, and here it sits close to the sitter's face. That placement points to reverie rather than a story. The lowered gaze and still background reinforce the mood, which is calm, inward and contemplative. Alice Pike Barney (1857-1931), born in Cincinnati, was an American painter and pastellist known chiefly for portraits and figure studies, and she ran a salon-style artistic circle in Washington, D.C. This undated work reflects the turn-of-the-century taste for delicate, decorative portraiture, in which one figure and one symbolic flower are set against an atmospheric ground.

Wearing the Artwork

This pastel works at the scale of a single front print. The profile and flower read as one quiet image, not a scene that needs room to unfold. Worn across the chest, the grey ground becomes the backdrop for the figure, and the waterlily carries the eye down and to the side. The design rewards a closer look, which suits a shirt you wear every day.