Raised in a small Catholic family in Uptown New Orleans, artist and educator Sadie Irvine is considered by many scholars to be the leading figure in the influential Newcomb Pottery movement. The 1906 Newcomb College graduate taught pottery, design, and watercolor at the school until her retirement in 1952. Mentored by Ellsworth Woodward, Irvine designed many vases with oak, moss, and moon motifs, drawn directly onto the clay shape with perfect eye-measured width and modernist abstract aesthetics. Irvine’s craftsmanship is particularly evident in Newcomb’s geometric-based Espanol designs, inspired by odd patterns Ellsworth discovered in a hand-carved Spanish mantel in the French Quarter.

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Magnolias, courtesy of Roger H. Ogden Collection

Crepe Myrtle, courtesy of Roger H. Ogden Collection

Dogwood, courtesy of Roger H. Ogden Collection

Iris Blosoms, courtesy of Roger H. Ogden Collection

Irvine Vases, courtesy of Roger H. Ogden Collection

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