Alice Pike Barney

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Self-portrait by Alice Pike Barney, 1895

Alice Pike Barney (born January 14, 1857 in Cincinnati , Ohio as Alice Pike , † July 16, 1931 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American painter , patron and salonnière .

Life

Alice was the youngest daughter of Samuel Napthali Pike, who made his fortune as a maker of whiskey ( Magnolia Brand Whiskey ) and was a great patron of the arts , including having the Pike's Opera House built in Cincinnati . In 1866 the family moved to New York . Alice was the only one of the four children who shared her father's artistic interests and showed a talent for singing and playing the piano from an early age.

Self-portrait by Alice Pike Barney

In 1874 Alice Pike became engaged to the famous African explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904), who shortly afterwards set off on his second Africa expedition (1874–1877). During his absence she married Albert Clifford Barney (1855-1902) in New York in 1876, the son of a wealthy railroad owner from Dayton , Ohio . The marriage had two daughters, Natalie (1876–1972) and Laura (1879–1974). In 1882, the Barney family spent the summer in New York's Long Beach Hotel , where Alice Pike Barney met the Irish-English writer Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), who was then on a reading tour. He encouraged her to seriously pursue her talent in painting, despite her husband's disapproval.

In 1887 Alice Pike Barney traveled to Paris to be closer to her two daughters, who were raised in a French boarding school. The boarding school was founded by the feminist Marie Souvestre , daughter of the famous novelist and playwright Émile Souvestre , and she was executive director. During this time Alice continued teaching with Émile Auguste Carolus-Duran and Claudio Castelucho at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière . When the American painter James McNeill Whistler opened the Académie Carmen , she was one of the first participants in the course and was greatly influenced by him in her work. In 1899 she founded a literary salon in her house on Rue Victor Hugo ; her friends and guests (including representatives of symbolism Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer , John White Alexander and Edmond Aman-Jean ) met regularly there .

Self-portrait by Alice Pike Barney

When her daughter Natalie published her first French volume of poetry Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes in 1900 , it was Alice who illustrated it. Of the four women she portrayed for this purpose, three were unaware of their courageously open lesbian relationship ( polyamory ) with their daughter at the time. Her husband was alerted by a newspaper report in the Washington Post ( "Self-proclaimed Daughter Sapphos " ) and immediately traveled to Paris to bring his wife and daughters back to America. A short time later he suffered a heart attack , of which he died in 1902.

Alice Pike Barney got to know the Baha'i religion through her daughter Laura Clifford Barney and converted to it shortly after 1900. Many Baha'i meetings were held at the Barney family home in Washington . In 1903, in Washington, she portrayed the Persian Baha'i scholar Mirza Abu'l-Fadl , who, at ʿAbdul-Baha's suggestion, visited the American community for several years. In the spring of 1905 she stayed with her daughter Laura for a month at ʿAbdul-Baha ’in Acre , during which time she portrayed the governor's son. Over the next several years, Alice Pike Barney had several solo exhibitions, including at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, and sponsored other artists as well. In 1911 she married the 23-year-old Christian Hemmick, which caused a worldwide stir, and nine years later they divorced.

Works (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jean L. Kling: Alice Pike Barney: Her Life and Art . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC 1994, ISBN 1-56098-344-2 , pp. 23-44 .
  2. ↑ Suzanne Rodriguez: Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris . Ed .: HarperCollins. New York 2002, ISBN 0-06-093780-7 .

literature

  • Charles Sullivan: American Beauties: Women in Art and Literature . Ed .: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with National Museum of American Art. New York 1993.
  • Jean L. Kling: Alice Pike Barney: Her Life and Art . Prentice Hall & IBD, 1994, ISBN 1-56098-344-2 .
  • The Bahai World: A Biennial International Record . tape 5 (1932-1934) , pp. 419-420 .

Web links

Commons : Alice Pike Barney  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Barney, Alice Pike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pike, Alice (maiden name); Barney, Alice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Cincinnati , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1931
Place of death Los Angeles , California