Hagen, Alice, 1872-1972

Alice Egan was born in Halifax in 1872. She attended Mount Saint Vincent Academy and the Victoria School of Art and Design (later the Nova Scotia College of Art), as well as at the Osgood Art School in New York. One of her first commissions came when she was selected to paint twelve plates for the Lady Aberdeen State Dinner Set, presented to Lady Aberdeen by the Canadian Senate at the time of the retirement of her husband as Governor General in 1898. In 1901 Alice Egan married John Hagen, an official of the Halifax and Bermuda Cable Company, and in 1910 transferred with him to Jamaica where she continued to work and teach. Her work was widely exhibited in the Islands and for her contribution to art in Jamaica Mrs. Hagen was awarded the bronze, and later the silver Sir Anthony Musgrave Medals, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1916 the Hagens returned to Halifax, settling finally in 1932 in Mahone Bay, where Alice Hagen began a new career as a potter, teaching, exhibiting and winning awards. Forty-eight pieces of her handpainted china, glass and pottery were presented to the Nova Scotia government and are displayed at the Citadel Museum in Halifax. Alice Mary Hagen died in January, 1972.