Evelyn de Morgan

Evelyn de Morgan – Life, Art, and Enduring Vision

Delve into the life and art of Evelyn de Morgan, the English painter whose symbolic canvases combined feminist, spiritual, and allegorical themes. Explore her biography, key works, influences, and legacy.

Introduction

Evelyn de Morgan (née Mary Evelyn Pickering; 30 August 1855 – 2 May 1919) was an English painter whose luminous, allegorical works bridged late Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism, and Symbolism. Celebrated for her richly colored canvases, mythical and spiritual themes, and commitment to feminist and pacifist ideals, she remains a distinctive voice in Victorian and Edwardian art.

Though she was comparatively obscure for much of the 20th century, recent exhibitions and scholarship have revived interest in her work and ideas.

Early Life and Family

Evelyn was born in London as Mary Evelyn Pickering, the daughter of Percival Pickering QC and Anna Maria Wilhelmina Spencer Stanhope.

Her education at home was rigorous: she studied classical languages (Greek, Latin), modern European tongues (French, German, Italian), literature, mythology, and scientific texts.

At age 15 she began formal drawing lessons. On her 17th birthday, she wrote in her diary, “Art is eternal, but life is short… I will make up for it now, I have not a moment to lose.” That passion, recorded early, would shape her vocation and resolve.

Youth, Training & Influences

In 1872, Evelyn entered the South Kensington National Art Training School (which later became part of the Royal College of Art). Slade School of Fine Art (in 1873), where she distinguished herself—earning medals for drawing from the antique and composition.

At the Slade, she benefited from unprecedented access for women: drawing from the life model (nudes) was permitted, which was often denied to women in many institutions. She gradually developed her own aesthetic, combining figurative realism with symbolic depth.

Her uncle, Spencer Stanhope, provided important mentorship. Evelyn frequently visited him in Florence starting from 1875, absorbing the art of the Italian Renaissance (especially Botticelli) and studying frescoes and altarpieces.

Through these influences, Evelyn moved away from strict adherence to academic norms and developed a mature voice combining myth, allegory, and spiritual symbolism.

Career and Major Works

Exhibitions and Artistic Practice

Evelyn first exhibited in 1876 at the Dudley Gallery (with St. Catherine of Alexandria), and in 1877 at the Grosvenor Gallery.

For much of her marriage’s early decades, she used proceeds from her paintings to help support her husband’s ceramics business (William de Morgan).

Her paintings often center on the female figure in allegorical, mythological, or spiritual scenes. She made elaborate use of light and darkness, symbolic color, and motifs such as transformation, the soul’s journey, the tension between flesh and spirit, and the critique of war and materialism.

Later in life, especially during and after the First World War, her work took on more overt pacifist themes. She produced more than fifteen paintings confronting war and its spiritual cost—including The Red Cross and S.O.S. (1916).

Selected Works & Themes

Some of her notable paintings include:

• Night and Sleep (1878) — showing the dark-haired Night guiding her son Sleep. Symbolic use of poppies hints at themes of death, repose, and inner peace.

• Aurora Triumphans

• Helen of Troy

• The Gilded Cage

• The Love Potion

• The Hourglass

• Hope in a Prison of Despair

• Earthbound, The Passing of the Soul at Death, Death of the Dragon

• Queen Eleanor & Fair Rosamund

• The Red Cross

• S.O.S.

• Daughters of the Mist
  Many of her works are held in the De Morgan Collection and museums like Wightwick Manor, the Walker Art Gallery, and others.

Her iconography is rich and multilayered: for instance, women in bondage or cages may represent spiritual or social constraints; transitions between day and night, or seasonal metaphors, represent the soul’s passage.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Second-generation Pre-Raphaelitism: Evelyn is often considered part of a later wave of Pre-Raphaelite-inspired artists, blending their ideals with Symbolist and Aesthetic elements.

• Feminist engagement: She aligned with women’s suffrage—her signature appears on the Declaration in Favour of Women's Suffrage of 1889. The Gilded Cage is often read as a critique of domestic constraint on women.

• Pacifism in wartime: Her later works challenge glorified narratives of war; she embraced spiritual resistance and commentary in a time of mass conflict.

• Spiritualism: Evelyn and her husband practiced spiritualism, automatic writing, and believed art could mediate the spiritual realm. In 1909 they (anonymously) published The Result of an Experiment, describing communications with spirits. The Passing of the Soul at Death articulate belief in life after death.

• Art world barriers: As a woman artist in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, she navigated social expectations, limited institutional access, and gendered constraints—yet managed to produce a body of work and maintain a public presence in exhibitions.

Legacy and Influence

Though for many decades overshadowed, Evelyn de Morgan’s reputation has revived in recent years:

• Rediscovery through exhibitions: Her works are increasingly displayed in retrospectives, such as Evelyn De Morgan: The Modern Painter in Victorian London (Guildhall Art Gallery, 2025–2026).

• The De Morgan Foundation: Established by her sister, the foundation curates, preserves, and promotes Evelyn’s and William de Morgan’s works and archival materials.

• Inspiration for feminist and spiritual readings: Her fusion of allegory, myth, feminist ideas, and spiritual symbolism places her among notable women artists whose works invite deeper interpretation.

• Art-historical reappraisal: Scholars now view her as bridging Victorian, spiritualist, and early modern sensibilities, expanding understanding of women’s contributions to Symbolism and allegorical art.

Personality and Talents

Evelyn de Morgan was determined, intellectually curious, and morally driven. She refused to allow gender norms to limit her artistic ambition.

Her mastery lay in combining technical skill (drawing, figure work, color, composition) with layered symbolic intention. She balanced narrative clarity and complexity, often inviting multiple readings. Her later life showed emotional courage—confronting loss, war, and spiritual doubt through her art.

Selected Quotes & Writings

Evelyn left fewer direct quotations than some of her peers, but a few are preserved in diaries and letters:

• From her teenage diary: “Art is eternal, but life is short… I will make up for it now, I have not a moment to lose.”

• On her tombstone (inscription from The Result of an Experiment):

  “Sorrow is only of the flesh / The life of the spirit is joy.”

• In her pictorial language, statements are often encoded: e.g. in Night and Sleep, the symbolism of poppies, of maternal guidance, hints at transition, peace, death, and perhaps rebirth.

Though not “famous quotes” in the sense of epigrams, her imagery and symbolic choices function as a visual language of moral conviction.

Lessons from Evelyn de Morgan

1. Art can carry conviction: De Morgan shows how painting can express ideals—spiritual, feminist, pacifist—without sacrificing beauty.

2. Persistence in face of constraints: Her career demonstrates that talent and resolve can push against social barriers.

3. Symbolism enriches narrative: She teaches us to embed layers in art, so that one image tells many stories.

4. Integration of life and work: Her spiritual practice, social views, and art were not separate domains—they informed each other.

5. Legacy must be preserved: Her relative obscurity for decades reminds us that artists—especially women—may need institutions and scholarship to sustain memory.

Conclusion

Evelyn de Morgan stands as a compelling figure who merged technique, narrative richness, spiritual depth, and social conscience in her art. In her elegantly draped figures and luminous allegories, she crafted a vision in which the soul’s journey, the dignity of women, and a hope for peace find poetic form. Though she lived in times that undervalued female artists, her works endure as profound invitations: to see beyond surfaces, to question material constraints, and to imagine a more soulful world.