Adelaide Alsop Robineau

Who was Adelaide Alsop Robineau?

Adelaïde Alsop Robineau was an American painter, potter and ceramist.

As a young woman Adelaïde became interested in the popular pursuit of china painting. She married Samuel E. Robineau of France in 1899, and in that year the couple launched Keramic Studio, a pioneering periodical for ceramic artists and potters. Adelaïde became interested in hand-crafting ceramics and in pursuit of advanced knowledge, spent some time under Charles Binns at Alfred University.

She was on the staff of the art academy of People's University, an institution founded by Edward Gardner Lewis in Missouri. The photo shows her in 1910 the year she made her most famous pot "The Scarab Vase", which won international recognition. The following year Gardner went bankrupt.

Adelaïde taught ceramics at Syracuse University from 1920-1929.

She is recognized as one the most important American ceramists of the late 19th and early 20th century American Arts and Craft Movement. Her work is noteworthy as she was one of the few women to make her pots "from clay to finish", whereas most of the other ceramist focused merely on painting the surface.