Adelaide Alsop Robineau
Adelaide Alsop Robineau was regarded as one of the most influential ceramists in the early 20th century. She became interested in drawing and china painting (a then-popular hobby) as a young woman. To further her skill, she took summer courses with the painter William Merritt Chase. Later, she studied under Charles Binns, a professor at Alfred University.
Adelaide became the sole editor of Keramic Studio, a periodical she and her husband published until 1919. When the couple moved to Syracuse, New York, Adelaide opened her ceramic studio, Four Winds Pottery School, beside their new home. She taught china painting and pottery, often selling her painted china, watercolors, and ceramics.
Her most famous work, the Scarab Vase, took over one thousand hours to create. In 2000, it was crowned the most important piece of American ceramics of the last hundred years by Art & Antiquities magazine. The Metropolitan Museum, the Everson Museum of Art, and other institutions still feature her work.