# The Necklace

- By: Alice Pike Barney (born Cincinnati, OH 1857-died Los Angeles, CA 1931)
- Date: 1898
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 18 3/8 x 16 1/8 in. (46.6 x 41.1 cm)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=1289)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/f146f1d01585614ab2d59fd0684e0b63.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Alice Pike Barney studied in Paris with portrait painter Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran, who believed that a sitter's outward appearance reflected his or her inner character. The Necklace, which was probably a self-portrait, shows a self-assured woman with a gold necklace. Her direct gaze and the portrait's dramatic lighting lend her an almost haughty air, hinting at Barney's independent and somewhat rebellious character.