14

Adelaide Alsop Robineau's New York studio

In 1896, possibly in response to the demands of her commission by the Women's Art Association of Canada, Alice Egan travelled to New York to study with Adelaide Alsop Robineau (1865-1929). Robineau and her husband spent only a few years in New York, where she had a china painting studio. During most her life and career she lived in Syracuse, New York, a dynamic centre of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. It must have been a very exciting and stimulating time for Alice Egan. Robineau was renowned for her work and she and her husband had bohemian, avant garde tastes. One can only speculate that Egan's world grew larger as a result of her stay in New York.(1)
(1) Peg Weiss, ed., Adelaide Alsop Robineau: Glory in Porcelain. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press 1981.

15

''Keramic Studio'' (journal launched 1899)
1899

16

''Keramic Studio'' (journal launched 1899)
1899

17

Keramic Studio

In 1899 Adelaide Robineau and her husband Samuel began publishing Keramic Studio, "to elevate the standards of craft and design." Robineau, a feminist, used Keramic Studio to encourage women artists and potters, and the journal also kept subscribers abreast of the latest trends in ceramics and provided lists of suppliers from whom materials and equipment could be ordered.

Alice Egan Hagen not only subscribed to Keramic Studio, but one of her designs, of seabirds in flight, was published in the journal.(1)
(1) Marie Elwood, Alice Hagen Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (Halifax: Anna Leonowens Gallery I, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984)

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''Untitled Portrait Tray'' 1896
1899

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Hagen and Robineau "Head of a Girl"

Adelaide Alsop Robineau was a very important influence on Alice Egan Hagen's life and career and there are striking parallels between the lives and careers of the two ceramic artists. Both began their artistic careers as china-painters, decorating blanks produced by industrial potteries in Europe, and both made the transition from china-painting to potting, Adelaide Alsop Robineau about 1900 and Alice Egan Hagen about 1930. Both operated professional china-painting studios where they taught and produced their own work. When they became potters they also continued to teach and each of these women conducted summer schools from her home studio, Robineau in suburban Syracuse, New York and Hagen in the small Nova Scotian South Shore town of Mahone Bay.(1)
(1) Peg Weiss, ed., Adelaide Alsop Robineau: Glory in Porcelain (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1981)

20

''Corner of Barrington and Sackville Streets'' (no date)
1898
Barrington and Sackville streets, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

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''Alice Egan's Studio in the Roy Building, Halifax, 1898 to 1899''
1898
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Studio in the Roy Building, Halifax

In 1896, with the money she had earned from her commission for the game plates for Ishbel Aberdeen's dinner set, Alice Egan rented a studio in Roy Building on Barrington Street in downtown Halifax. She was able to buy her own kiln and she established herself as a china painter and teacher. A comparison of her studio with that of Adelaide Alsop Robineau suggests the influence Robineau had on her Nova Scotian student. At about this period Alice Egan also spent some time studying with Dorothea Warren O'Hara, who taught cloisonné and enamels on porcelain.