Search Collections
Alice Pike Barney
Also Known as: Mrs.Alice Pike Barney, Alice Barney, Alice Pike
Born:
Cincinnati, Ohio 1857
Died:
Los Angeles, California 1931
Active in:
- Washington, District of Columbia
Photo Caption:
Alice Pike Barney, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney 1951.14.93.
Photo Caption:
Alice Pike Barney, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney 1957.13.17.
Photo Caption:
Alice Pike Barney, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney 1952.13.84.
Photo Caption:
Alice Pike Barney, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney 1976.154.
Biography
Born in Cincinnati, lived in various places, including Paris, Washington, D.C., and Hollywood. Artist, playwright, patron of the arts. Her Studio House in Washington, D.C., the scene of many cultural salons, 1903–1925, is now owned by the NMAA.
Charles Sullivan, ed American Beauties: Women in Art and Literature (New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with National Museum of American Art, 1993)
Additional Biographies
Alice Pike Barney was an influential figure in Washington, D.C.'s social and artistic scene in the early 1900s. She began to pursue art seriously after she was married with two children. Against societal norms and her husband's wishes she left Washington in the late 1880s to study in Paris with noted portrait painter Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran and later with James McNeill Whistler, who became her mentor. She returned to Washington energized and determined to establish a thriving art scene in the nation's capital. In 1902, Barney began construction on the Studio House, an eclectically decorated art center that was open to all. With the support of Congress, she also helped build the National Sylvan Theater near the Washington Monument, the nation's first federally supported outdoor theater, where she organized the production of some of her own plays. Barney was dedicated to improving the standards of living in D.C. and helped establish Neighborhood House, a social services home that is still in existence. She also actively supported the women's suffrage movement.
Social Media @ American Art