Alice Pike Barney was an American artist. She began painting and drawing professionally in the late 1800s and was part of the New Woman era. The New Woman was educated and independent, challenging prior social expectations of women's abilities and roles. Barney painted bold self-portraits of herself as a working artist and chose other elite women as her sitters.

Around 1895 Barney drew U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Longworth embodied the New Woman for Barney. She was in touch with traditional aspects of femininity but was also confident and self-assured.