Not Intended for the Public: A Look at Amateur Women Painters

» Barbara Bell - Amateur artists

In the later Victorian period, many of these women turned to decorating blank china, a hobby that continued well into the 20th century. Several women did pursue this further and became professional art potters. Rookwood Pottery was started by Maria Longworth Nichols, out of what started as an amateur china painting club.

Decorating china was considered to be therapeutic, and a pottery was set up within a sanitorium in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Decorating blank pottery, such as vases and jars, was also considered an acceptable skill for lower-class young women, and the Saturday Evening Girls (SEG) pottery finished by them is highly collectible.

Eventually art pottery became a college-level pursuit, such as at Alfred College in New York, and Newcomb College (the women's college of Tulane University). Employment was the goal for the graduates of these programs.

In the potteries, almost all designers were men, and the decorators were women. Adelaide Alsop Robineau was an exception. Please see my article: Adelaide Alsop Robineau, Master Ceramist.

-- posted by Barbara Bell

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