Theodoor Christiaan Adriaan Colenbrander was born on October 31, 1841 in Doesburg, a small town on the Ijssel river, near Arnhem, the Netherlands. He was the first child of Johannes Colenbrander and Johanna Joacomina Kempées. Although the name on his birth certificate was T. C. A. Colenbrander, he preferred to rearrange the initials as T. A. C., and this is how he is now generally known.

Few records of Colenbrander's early years survive. He trained to be an architect, and he worked with L. H. Eberson in Arnhem, who later was to become the principal architect for King Willem II. On Eberson's advice, Colenbrander moved to Paris sometime during the latter half of the 1860s, where he assisted in the preparations for a world's fair held in Paris in 1867. Upon his return to Holland, he designed a number of country houses and worked as a draftsman for the Ministry of War in The Hague.

In 1884 he became the artistic director of Rozenburg, an art pottery in The Hague founded in 1883 by Wilhelm Wolff von Gudenberg. Here Colenbrander created a new style of ceramic decoration that brought immediate fame to the factory. His decorations featured either highly stylized natural objects or wholly abstract motifs. These designs broke completely with traditional Dutch ceramic designs. Additionally, Colenbrander's designs often incorporated undecorated fields as an integral component; such "white space" was often as important to the overall effect of a design as the painted portion itself.

As a ceramic designer, Colenbrander was responsible for creating models and the decorations used on them. He did not, however, paint his decorations on the ceramics himself; this work was performed by Rozenburg's staff of faïence painters. While Colenbrander's models were limited largely to vases and plates, the forms of these objects varied greatly. Plates ranged in size from 15 to 40 centimeters in diameter; some were ribbed, while others had raised rims. Similarly, the vases also possessed a number of styles and heights. Many of Colenbrander's vases were Middle Eastern or Asian in shape, an influence that was acknowledged by the names he gave to them, such as the "turban" and "pagoda" vases. The height of the vases ranged from 15 to 66 centimeters.

The picture to the left shows a Rozenburg earthenware lidded vase designed by Colenbrander that bears the manufacturer's mark for 1887. The base of the body is decorated with the design "Voorjaar" ("Spring"). It is an excellent example of Colenbrander's work for Rozenburg. The polychrome decoration depicts a stylized building surrounded by vegetation and abstract motifs, and uses a range of colors, including yellow, brown, light blue, dark blue, and green. The height of the lidded vase is 62 centimeters.

Colenbrander's Rozenburg designs met with immediate acclaim. Many Dutch painters considered his work to be on the same level as their own, although executed in a different medium. But while Colenbrander's ceramics were highly praised, they did not sell well. Time-consuming to produce, they were correspondingly expensive. The fact that Colenbrander's designs were so unusual also limited their appeal to a small circle of affluent people whose tastes included nontraditional styles.

Privately, Colenbrander was considered to be a gentle, generous man, but as a designer he had a reputation for being difficult. He knew exactly how he expected his designs to be executed, and he was most vocal when his expectations were not met. Consequently, his relationship with Rozenburg's board of directors was often rocky. By 1889, the situation had deteriorated to the point that Colenbrander tendered his resignation.

Over the next few years Colenbrander was active in a number of fields, including interior design and book illustration. In 1896 Colenbrander became the artistic director of a carpet factory in Amersfoort, for which he produced carpet designs. This factory was taken over in 1901 by another carpet factory in Deventer, but Colenbrander continued his activities as artistic director for this factory as well. Colenbrander became famous for his carpet designs, which featured saturated, bright colors in compositions unlike all others. Virtually all of his carpet designs were drawn as quarter designs, which had to be mirrored three times to produce the completed design. The quarter design "Artisjok 4" ("Artichoke 4") illustrated on the right has been so mirrored.

In the next decade Colenbrander returned to the field of ceramics. Starting in 1912 he produced designs for the Zuid-Holland art pottery factory in Gouda. This association, however, was not long-lived; Colenbrander left the factory in 1913 due to "artistic differences," and moved to the city of Arnhem, located in eastern Holland near the German border.

Little is known about Colenbrander's activities during the remainder of this decade, but he apparently continued to work inconspicuously as a freelance artist. His reputation, however, maintained its luster, and led to the establishment of a new pottery in Arnhem to produce old and new designs by him. Colenbrander named the factory RAM, after the star Aries, the brightest sign in the zodiac.

The factory's initial efforts were purely exploratory. Much effort was devoted to experimentation with clays and glazes. The colors used in his designs were very important to Colenbrander, and he was most particular in choosing only those colors that met his standards. The factory did not start production on a commercial basis until 1921.

Colenbrander was by then 80 years old, but his advanced age did not prevent him from being productive. Over a span of six years he designed more than 60 models and some 700 decorations for them. The models were largely limited to vases, plates, bowls, and cups, but the range of sizes and forms was quite diverse. The smallest model, a saucer, was 2.8 centimeters in height, while the talled vase for 55.8 centimeters in height.

The designs that Colenbrander created for RAM represent a further development of the style that he originated for Rozenburg. The colors that he used now were brighter, and the patterns even more abstract. The designs were also less rigidly structured, and often were totally asymmetrical.

This picture shows the decoration "Losjes" ("Lightly") on RAM model 12, manufactured in 1924. The abstract design is repeated twice around the body of the vase, which is 8 centimeters in height and 11.7 centimeters in width.

The picture to the right shows RAM model 7 with the decoration "Flarden" ("Tatters"), manufactured in 1923. The chalice-shaped vase is 22.5 centimeters in height and 12.5 centimeters in width. The highly stylized plant motifs are repeated three times around the vase's body.

The wares of the RAM factory were relatively expensive, and most were sold at Amsterdam auctions held in 1922, 1924, and 1927. They were also available in Arnhem at an art gallery. In total, about five thousand pieces of Colenbrander RAM designs were produced.

Because it was difficult to make a profit on the sales of Colenbrander's designs, efforts were made to economize in 1923 through the use of cheaper glazes. These glazes could be applied more easily, but were not as solid in appearance. The end effect looked something like watercolors. Colenbrander was very displeased with these new glazes. He was vocal enough in his opposition that it was agreed to discontinue their use. In 1924 RAM was reorganized to produce designs by other artists as well as those by Colenbrander. Disenchanted with the direction being taken by the management of RAM, Colenbrander eventually disassociated himself from the factory.

After fourteen years in Arnhem, Colenbrander moved to Laag-Keppel near the end of his life, where he died on May 28, 1930. He was buried in a cemetery at Oosterbeek.