William Miller

Alice Pike Barney William Miller

In 1882 Alice Pike Barney and her family spent the summer at New York's Long Beach Hotel, where Oscar Wilde happened to be speaking on his American lecture tour. Wilde spent the day with Alice and her daughter Natalie on the beach; their conversation changed the course of Alice's life, inspiring her to pursue art seriously despite her husband's disapproval --- As educational opportunities were made more available in the 19th-century, women artists became part of professional enterprises, including founding their own art associations. Artwork made by women was considered to be inferior, and to help overcome that stereotype women became increasingly vocal and confident in promoting women's work, and thus became part of the emerging image of the educated, modern and freer "New Woman". Artists played crucial roles in representing the New Woman, both by drawing images of the icon and exemplifying this emerging type through their own lives. In the late 19th-century and early 20th century about 88% of the subscribers of 11,000 magazines and periodicals were women.