Vase with Pre-Raphaelite woman

Born and trained in England, Frederick Hurten Rhead became one of America’s most influential ceramist, working at potteries across the country. An important teacher, he was also one of the leading American champions of modern design, not only in theory but in practice. Rhead came to the United States in 1902, and his first position was with the Avon Pottery in Tiltonsville, Ohio, near Zanesville and the location of a number of important American art potteries. This important vase features a graceful Pre-Raphaelite woman in a medievalizing gown patterned with Japanesque motifs, standing in a highly stylized landscape. It is likely that Rhead conceived of this design in England, and for this vase, it was then decorated by Rhead’s compatriot, the highly skilled Albert Cusick. Indeed, it is entirely English in its approach, and brings to mind similar Pre-Raphaelite women in long flowing gowns of patterned textiles such as those seen in the figural windows of a few decades earlier by Daniel Cottier (see 2007.43). The technique is one that Rhead also favored—utilizing flat washes of colored slip and raised clay tube lining, or piping.