Katherine Hemmick Johnson

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Artist: Alice Pike Barney (American, 1857–1931)
Medium: Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
Size: 42 1/8 x 28 in. (107.0 x 71.1 cm)
Museum: Smithsonian Institution
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Alice Pike Barney created several portraits of her friends and associates in Washington, D.C., documenting the lifestyles of contemporary polite society. Katharine Hemmick Johnson (1880–1955) was the daughter of the consul to Geneva, Switzerland. After attending school in Paris, she moved to D.C. to live with her aunt and uncle. An active participant on the social scene, Johnson made her societal debut in the early 1900s and attended dances at the White House.

At one such party, she met her future husband, Oliver Hazard Perry Johnson, then director of the National Metropolitan Bank. The two married in 1903. Johnson and Barney, who were neighbors in Northwest D.C., became friends and sisters-in-law—Barney was married to Johnson's brother, Christian Hemmick, for nine years. In 1916, Johnson took part in Barney's production of War to Peace, a pacifist tableau, and also helped her entertain guests at Studio House, Barney's uniquely beautiful arts center, built in 1902 on Sheridan Circle in Washington.