Robineau's success with porcelain making paralleled her mastery of increasingly complex decorative techniques. She was a skilled porcelain carver, inciser, and exciser, and her designs were often inspired by Asian, Egyptian, Native and South American art. This bowl, with a spiraling serpent at its center and carved crouching Mayan figures and serpents on its legs, demonstrates her superb carving. The contrasting pale, carved interior, a coiled serpent depicted with concentric circles of diamond-shaped scales in varicolored glazes, alleviates the heaviness of the strong sober form with the monochromatic exterior.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bowl
Designer:Adelaide Alsop Robineau (American, Middletown, Connecticut, 1865–1929 Syracuse, New York)
Date:1917
Geography:Made in Mid-Atlantic United States, Syracuse, New York, United States
Medium:Porcelain
Dimensions:2 5/8 × 6 7/8 in. (6.7 × 17.5 cm)
Classification:Ceramics-Porcelain
Credit Line:Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1923
Object Number:23.145
Inscription: Signed and dated (bottom): AR [monogram] / 1917
the designer, Syracuse, N.Y. (1917–23; sold through the American Federation of Arts, Washington, to MMA)
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," November 1–25, 1922, no. 103 (as "Carved Bowl; 'Peruvian Serpent'").
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," December 5–25, 1922, no. 103.
Providence. Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," January 5–25, 1923, no. 103.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," February 5–25, 1923, no. 103.
Pittsburgh. Carnegie Institute. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," March 1923, no. 103.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," April 4–20, 1923, no. 103.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Exhibition of American Handicrafts Assembled and Circulated by the American Federation of Arts," May 1–31, 1923, no. 103.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Memorial Exhibition of Porcelain and Stoneware by Adelaide Alsop Robineau, 1865–1929," November 18, 1929–January 19, 1930, no. 66 (as "'Peruvian Serpent Bowl'").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Porcelain: 1770–1920," April 8–June 25, 1989, no. 117.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America, 1880–1920: Design for the Modern World," December 19, 2004–April 3, 2005, unnumbered cat. (fig. 8.43).
Milwaukee Art Museum. "The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America, 1880–1920: Design for the Modern World," May 19–September 5, 2005, unnumbered cat.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America, 1880–1920: Design for the Modern World," October 16, 2005–January 8, 2006, unnumbered cat.
Syracuse, N. Y. Everson Museum of Art. "Only an Artist: Adelaide Alsop Robineau, American Studio Potter," March 11–May 21, 2006, no. 45 (as "Peruvian Serpent Bowl").
Ethel Brand Wise. "Adelaide Alsop Robineau—American Ceramist." American Magazine of Art 20 (December 1929), p. 689, ill. pp. 688, 691, calls it "Bronze Glaze Bowl (Peruvian Inspiration)".
S. E. Robineau. "Adelaide Alsop-Robineau." Design 30 (April 1929), ill. p. 202, calls it "Serpent Bowl".
Leslie Gorman. "Inventory of Robineau's Works in Public Collections in the United States." Adelaide Alsop Robineau: Glory in Porcelain. Ed. Peg Weiss. Syracuse, N. Y., 1981, p. 185, no. 262, ill. and ill. back cover (color), as "Peruvian Serpent Bowl".
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. American Porcelain: 1770–1920. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 64, 292–93, 296, no. 117, ill. (color, overall and detail).
R. Craig Miller. Modern Design in The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1890–1990. New York, 1990, p. 88, ill.
Wendy Kaplan. The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America: Design for the Modern World. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York, 2004, pp. 280, 316, fig. 8.43 (color).
Thomas Piché Jr. inOnly an Artist: Adelaide Alsop Robineau, American Studio Potter. Ed. Thomas Piché Jr. and Julia A. Monti. Exh. cat., Everson Museum of Art. Syracuse, N. Y., 2006, pp. 19, 108, no. 45, ill. p. 56 (color).
Adelaide Alsop Robineau (American, Middletown, Connecticut, 1865–1929 Syracuse, New York)
1926
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