This collection of vases was produced by the husband-and-wife team of Jane and Ralph Whitehead. Students of the influential English art theorist John Ruskin, the couple espoused an Arts and Crafts philosophy articulated in Ralph’s privately printed work, Grass of the Desert (1892). From their William Morris-decorated California villa, Arcady, he sought to found artists’ colony based on the movement’s utopia ideals. In 1902, using his own independent wealth, he began construction on Byrdcliffe, a thousand-acre farm in Woodstock, New York. By 1903, he had successfully constructed about thirty structures, including workshops, artist residences, and a private home, White Pines, for his family. Although cabinetmaking was the colony’s principle activity, pottery, weaving, and photography continued to be produced after the workshop ceased in 1905.
In 1915, the Whiteheads built White Pines Pottery, a private studio adjacent their home. While Jane traveled to Santa Barbara to take lessons with the well-known potter Frederick Rhead, Ralph worked on casting molds at Woodstock. Drawing from pattern books and Jane’s own hand- and wheel-thrown examples, Ralph produced a variety of forms. Slip-cast in molds, the final pots, collaborative in form and content, reflect Ralph’s primary interest in glazes, as these pots suggest.
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.