Laura Attentive

Portrait drawing by Alice Pike Barney, Cincinnati-born painter and sculptor (1857–1931). Executed in pastel and charcoal on paper, the work captures a young woman in three-quarter view, her auburn hair arranged in the fashionable pompadour style of the early twentieth century. The artist's signature appears in blue ink at lower left. Barney worked across multiple mediums—painting, sculpture, theater design—and was known for her society portraits and figure studies. This drawing exemplifies the refined draftsmanship and psychological directness characteristic of portraiture in the 1910s, when such works served as primary records of appearance and social standing.