Adelaide Alsop Robineau

Adelaide Alsop Robineau was a potter and ceramicist. She was born on April 9, 1865, in Middletown, Connecticut. Robineau was interested in art from a young age and taught herself china painting from books. She studied painting with William Merritt Chase in New York City, and later studied at Alfred University under the renowned potter Charles Binns.

In 1899, Robineau married fellow artist Samuel Robineau, and the two started Keramic Studio, a monthly publication for ceramic artists.

Robineau’s work can be recognized by its use of carving or excising to create delicate patterns in the surface of the piece. She was strongly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and its emphasis on quality materials and craftsmanship, and later by Taxile Doat, a French ceramic artist known for his writings on porcelain ceramics. She also developed a distinctive 'high-fire bronze' technique involving matte glaze that did not obscure her delicate carvings.

Robineau and Doat were both in residence in University City, Missouri, from 1909-1911, during which Robineau produced an estimated ninety vases. During this time, she created her most iconic piece, Apotheosis of the Toiler, also known as the Scarab Vase, which infamously took over 1,000 hours to carve. The vase later claimed first prize in ceramics at both the Turin, Italy, International Exhibition in 1911 and the Pan-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, in 1915.

Robineau also exhibited at the Syracuse Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1903, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, in 1904, The Art Institute of Chicago Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1905 and 1913, and at the Paris Salon in 1912. By the time Robineau left University City, she had established herself at the top of her field.

Robineau and her husband moved to Syracuse, New York, in 1911, where they set up a studio known as Four Winds. In 1916, the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts (now the Everson Museum) acquired some thirty-two of Robineau’s vases, which can still be viewed in the museum’s collection today. The Saint Louis Art Museum also holds one of Robineau’s vases in its permanent collection. Robineau died on February 18, 1929, in Syracuse.