M. Louise McLaughlin

Mary Louise McLaughlin (September 29, 1847 - January 19, 1939) was an American ceramics artist and potter from Cincinnati, Ohio, and the main local rival, Maria Longworth, Nichols Storer, who founded Rookwood Pottery. Like Storer, McLaughlin was one of the creators of the art pottery movement that swept the United States. Mary Louise McLaughlin was born into a wealthy Cincinnati family, her father was the owner of a successful haberdashery company in the city. Her older brother was the architect James W. McLaughlin. Demonstrating artistic ability at a young age, McLaughlin did not take formal art lessons until 1871 at a private school for girls. In 1874, in Cincinnati, at the McMicken School of Design, and then at the Cincinnati Academy of Art, McLaughlin took a lesson in Chinese painting, offered by Mr. Benn Pitman. During the Maria Longworth Nichols Storer exhibition at the school that year, McLaughlin became interested in porcelain painting. In 1875, two female works were presented at the Centennial Tea Party for critical acclaim, and in 1876 both women had exhibitions at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA. While at the McLaughlin exhibition, the works presented by the French company Haviland & Co., which presented exhibits depicting paintings using the technique of underglaze glaze, were especially attracted. Since this was a unique achievement at the time, McLaughlin returned to Cincinnati with the intention of finding out the secret of their method. Upon her return, she also wrote a book about Chinese painting, in which many copies were sold ("Chinese Painting: A Practical Guide for Using Lovers to Decorate Solid Porcelain"). McLaughlin sold more of her work at the exhibition than Storer, and thus began a kind of competition between the two women.