Natalie with Necklace

Natalie with Necklace (1900) by Alice Pike Barney, now at the Smithsonian, depicts the artist's daughter Natalie Barney — who would become one of the most celebrated literary salon hostesses of twentieth-century Paris, known as 'the Amazon' for her unconventional life. In 1900 Natalie was twenty-three, already living in Paris and beginning the life that would make her famous. This maternal portrait captures her at the outset of that extraordinary trajectory.

The necklace of the title provides a decorative focal point at the sitter's throat, Barney exploiting the jewellery's reflective quality to anchor the composition. The young Natalie is rendered with her mother's characteristic directness — no hagiography, but genuine attention to the particular presence of this specific person.