Iconic Sadie Irvine of New Orleans

The artist pioneered the “treescapes” with moonlight and Spanish moss that perhaps best represent Newcomb pottery

Irvine, Sadie. Scenic plaque with Spanish moss with moon and cypress trees. c. 1914, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. CC-0.

Sadie Irvine (1887–1970) created the kind of art that could make people homesick for places they’ve never seen.

She captured in her ceramics the notion of a romantic Louisiana landscape — cypress and oaks draped in Spanish moss, often with a sense of soft moonlight.

Detail of Irvine’s Spanish moss with moon and cypress trees. c. 1914, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. CC-0

Irvine is credited with formulating this “moon treescape” motif, according to a biography posted on the website of the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University. The biography says Irvine was the “most talented and aesthetically advanced decorator at all stages” of the Newcomb Pottery enterprise.

The Newcomb Pottery operated in New Orleans from about 1894 until about 1940. It was part of a movement to bring women into the arts, providing talented craftswomen with a way of making a living by making the world a little more pleasant. Men were hired to create the clay vases and such, which artists like Irvine then decorated.