White Paradise
ca. 1900
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney
Accession Number
1952.13.64
Tags
Art Historical Context
**White Paradise** (ca. 1900) by Alice Pike Barney captures a serene, ethereal vision featuring a female figure, evoking a dreamlike idyll through its titular "white paradise." As an oil painting—or likely so, given the era's conventions—this work exemplifies the soft, luminous qualities prized in turn-of-the-century American art Barney, a prominent Washington, D.C., artist and cultural patron, often infused her canvases with elegance and introspection, drawing from the refined aesthetics of her time. Created around 1900, the painting reflects the Belle Époque's fascination with idealized fem...