Alice Egan

Alice Mary Hagen
Alice Mary Egan as a young woman
Born	Alice Mary Egan 1872 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died	1972 Nova Scotia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	China painter, potter
Known for	The Christina Morris bowl

Alice Mary Hagen (born Alice Mary Egan; 1872–1972) was a Canadian ceramic artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was trained in china painting, and earned her living through selling painted chinaware and teaching. She was among the artists selected to paint plates for the 1897 Canadian Historical Dinner Service. She gained a high reputation for the quality of her work, for which she won various prizes. She married happily and had two daughters. She continued to paint china while raising her family in Canada and Jamaica. When she was about sixty and her husband had retired she learned to make pottery at her studio in Nova Scotia, and was a pioneer of studio pottery in the area. She continued to produce and sell painted pottery until she was aged 93. Many ceramic artists acknowledged their debt to Alice Hagen as a teacher and an example.

Alice Mary Egan was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1872. Her parents were Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas J. Egan and Margaret Kelley. Her father owned a store that guns and sporting goods in downtown Halifax, and by the early 20th century was also offering taxidermy services. He was a prominent member of the Irish Catholic community of the city, a founding member of the Halifax Rifles militia unit and the author of the History of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion and Volunteer Companies 1859-1887. She had two sisters and one brother.

Alice's mother was an amateur artist of some ability, and encouraged Alice to draw and paint. She determined to become a professional artist, against her parents' wishes. Her father thought that millinery would be a more secure source of income than art, even though pay was low, but Alice was determined. Alice Egan first studied art at the Mount Saint Vincent Academy, Halifax. She then studied at the Victoria School of Art and Design, which later became the Nova Scotia College of Art. She also studied at the Osgood Art School in New York.

Around 1892 an artist named Bessie Brown taught Alice Egan basic china painting techniques. Bessie Brown was the sister-in-law of John Thompson, prime minister of Canada. China painting was a popular medium at that time for professional women artists. It was one of the few respectable media for women artists, perhaps due to its associations with decorating the home. She went on to study china painting under Adelaïde Alsop Robineau in New York in 1896. Alice Egan leased a studio in Halifax in the commercial Roy Building. She equipped it with a kiln, purchased from the profits from her early sales, and used the studio to paint and to teach. Photographs show that she took care to give the room and feminine and domestic feeling despite its commercial purpose.