Adelaide Alsop Robineau Decorative Objects

“A Robineau vase is a true work of art, unique in conception and perfect in execution, for every piece that left this studio was a labor of love.” – Ethel Brand Wise, The American Magazine of Art, 1929 Adelaide Alsop Robineau was a pioneer in American studio ceramics and excelled as an innovator in pottery both technically and aesthetically. As a young woman of high society in the late Victorian era, she gained early accolades as a skilled watercolorist and china painter and taught for a time at St. Mary’s Hall in Minnesota. In 1899, she married Samuel E. Robineau, a French gentleman and collector of Chinese ceramics. He was deeply intrigued by her talent and steadfastly supported and encouraged her throughout her career. The couple collaborated to produce a popular and influential monthly journal together, Keramic Studio, and went on to build a studio on their property in Syracuse, New York, which they named Four Winds. Robineau would also go on to teach for many years at Syracuse University while creating her own work and raising three children. Early in her career, she studied at Alfred University under Charles Binns, who is widely considered to be the progenitor of contemporary studio ceramics in America. His program established a shift in the craft of ceramics as an academic pursuit, rather than one of apprenticeship. Pottery throwers and the artists who decorated the wares traditionally inhabited separate roles in ceramic manufacture, a practice common in Europe. Binns’ philosophy merged the two, such that the potter had total agency of the final product. This marked a historic divergence in the creation of art pottery – one that Adelaide Robineau...

“A Robineau vase is a true work of art, unique in conception and perfect in execution, for every piece that left this studio was a labor of love.” – Ethel Brand Wise, The American Magazine of Art, 1929 Adelaide Alsop Robineau was a pioneer in American studio ceramics and excelled as an innovator in pottery both technically and aesthetically. As a young woman of high society in the late Victorian era, she gained early accolades as a skilled watercolorist and china painter and taught for a time at St. Mary’s Hall in Minnesota. In 1899, she married Samuel E. Robineau, a French gentleman and collector of Chinese ceramics. He was deeply intrigued by her talent and steadfastly supported and encouraged her throughout her career. The couple collaborated to produce a popular and influential monthly journal together, Keramic Studio, and went on to build a studio on their property in Syracuse, New York, which they named Four Winds. Robineau would also go on to teach for many years at Syracuse University while creating her own work and raising three children. Early in her career, she studied at Alfred University under Charles Binns, who is widely considered to be the progenitor of contemporary studio ceramics in America. His program established a shift in the craft of ceramics as an academic pursuit, rather than one of apprenticeship. Pottery throwers and the artists who decorated the wares traditionally inhabited separate roles in ceramic manufacture, a practice common in Europe. Binns’ philosophy merged the two, such that the potter had total agency of the final product. This marked a historic divergence in the creation of art pottery – one that Adelaide Robineau...

“A Robineau vase is a true work of art, unique in conception and perfect in execution, for every piece that left this studio was a labor of love.” – Ethel Brand Wise, The American Magazine of Art, 1929 Adelaide Alsop Robineau was a pioneer in American studio ceramics and excelled as an innovator in pottery both technically and aesthetically. As a young woman of high society in the late Victorian era, she gained early accolades as a skilled watercolorist and china painter and taught for a time at St. Mary’s Hall in Minnesota. In 1899, she married Samuel E. Robineau, a French gentleman and collector of Chinese ceramics. He was deeply intrigued by her talent and steadfastly supported and encouraged her throughout her career. The couple collaborated to produce a popular and influential monthly journal together, Keramic Studio, and went on to build a studio on their property in Syracuse, New York, which they named Four Winds. Robineau would also go on to teach for many years at Syracuse University while creating her own work and raising three children. Early in her career, she studied at Alfred University under Charles Binns, who is widely considered to be the progenitor of contemporary studio ceramics in America. His program established a shift in the craft of ceramics as an academic pursuit, rather than one of apprenticeship. Pottery throwers and the artists who decorated the wares traditionally inhabited separate roles in ceramic manufacture, a practice common in Europe. Binns’ philosophy merged the two, such that the potter had total agency of the final product. This marked a historic divergence in the creation of art pottery – one that Adelaide Robineau...

“A Robineau vase is a true work of art, unique in conception and perfect in execution, for every piece that left this studio was a labor of love.” – Ethel Brand Wise, The American Magazine of Art, 1929 Adelaide Alsop Robineau was a pioneer in American studio ceramics and excelled as an innovator in pottery both technically and aesthetically. As a young woman of high society in the late Victorian era, she gained early accolades as a skilled watercolorist and china painter and taught for a time at St. Mary’s Hall in Minnesota. In 1899, she married Samuel E. Robineau, a French gentleman and collector of Chinese ceramics. He was deeply intrigued by her talent and steadfastly supported and encouraged her throughout her career. The couple collaborated to produce a popular and influential monthly journal together, Keramic Studio, and went on to build a studio on their property in Syracuse, New York, which they named Four Winds. Robineau would also go on to teach for many years at Syracuse University while creating her own work and raising three children. Early in her career, she studied at Alfred University under Charles Binns, who is widely considered to be the progenitor of contemporary studio ceramics in America. His program established a shift in the craft of ceramics as an academic pursuit, rather than one of apprenticeship. Pottery throwers and the artists who decorated the wares traditionally inhabited separate roles in ceramic manufacture, a practice common in Europe. Binns’ philosophy merged the two, such that the potter had total agency of the final product. This marked a historic divergence in the creation of art pottery – one that Adelaide Robineau...