Egyptian Maidens, 1930

Description:

Created at Cowan Pottery, Rocky River, Ohio

Exhibited: Cleveland Museum of Art, May Show, 1930, one of five created

Elsa Vick Shaw’s Egyptian Maidens (1930) is the only work that she created for the Cowan Pottery Studio, which produced five glazed ceramic mosaic panels, and was exhibited at the 1930 Cleveland Museum of Art May Show. This particular panel was saved from the home of Shaw in Moreland Hills, a suburb of Cleveland, prior to its scheduled demolition. Five tile murals are listed as created on the intake sheet for the Cleveland Museum of Art May Show in 1930, where one of the tiles was exhibited. It is not clear whether it was this one or another.  One of the known examples is in the collection of The Rocky River Public Library, Cowan Pottery Museum, Rocky River, Ohio. Photos include the May Show intake sheet from 1930 and a photo of the tile as it was displayed in the show.

Typical of her work in the Art Deco style, Egyptian Maidens shows three women gathering water within the stylized Egyptian landscape along the Nile River. Shaw is known for her fourteen murals on the origin of music at Severance Hall, the world-renowned home of the Cleveland Orchestra.