The art of Evelyn De Morgan

Full text

Woman's Art, Inc.
The Art of Evelyn De Morgan
Author(s): Elise Lawton Smith
Source:
Woman's Art Journal,
Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1997 - Winter, 1998), pp. 3-10
Published by: Woman's Art, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1358544
Accessed: 23/12/2009 12:14
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=womansart.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Woman's Art, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Woman's Art Journal.
http://www.jstor.org

.0
THE
ART
OF
EVELYN
DE
MORGAN
By Elise Lawton Smith
W lhat does it mean to be enclosed, a spirit bound by the
ponderous flesh of the body, a woman confined within
the walls of domesticated spaces? My first introduction to
the art of Evelyn Pickering De Morgan (1855-1919), through an il-
lustration of The Gilded Cage (1905-10; Fig. 1), led me to consider
this (question from various perspectives. I wondered whether the
image wvas
autobiographical, or if it reflected the mood of early-
20th-century feminists in Britain, and I was curious about the possi-
bility of allegorical meaning enriching the narrative. Although De
Morgan's art is clearly situated witlin the tradition of late-Victorian
allegorv, it stands out in two important respects from the work of
such contemporaries as Edward Bumne-Jones
and George W'atts.
It
is permeated with a form of Spiritualism that was popular at the
time, and that Spiritualist philosophy is often conflated with a par-
ticularly charged recognition of the claustrophobic world of middle-
class Victorian and Eldwardian
women.
Most of our inforimation about De Morgan's life comes from a
biography written in 1922 by her younger sister, Anna Maria \il-
helmina Stirling (1865-1965). The title, William De Morgan and His
WXife,
suggests the bias and limitations of the author's approach, as
Stirling focused more on the work of W\illiam (1841-1917), an Arts
and Crafts potter in the circle of William Morris and later a success-
fill novelist, than on her own sister's career. Questions also have
been raised recently about various factual and interpretative errors
in this biography.' W\ilhelmina was v,ears younger than Evelyn, so
her account of that pivotal period in her sister's life, fronm
1871,
when fifteen-vear-old Evelyn began her studies with a drawing mas-
ter, to 1876, wvhen
she exhibited her first painting, must have been
based less on personal memo-
ries than on secondhand knowl-
edge or the mythic construc-
tion of the past that all falmilies
practice to a certain extent.
Despite these difficulties, it is
still possible to recognize
through Stirling's biography /
(coupled with the few relevant
family documents now, hloused
in the De Morgan Foulndation,
London) that Evelyn's early
years as an artist were both fos-
tered and hampered by her up- t
per-class family. Hefter
father y i
Percival Pickering, a barrister, .
was already a Queen's Counsel
in London at the time of his
lmarriage to Anna Maria \Vil-
helmina Spencer-Stanhope, a
descendant of the Earl of
Leicester. Their follr chil- *
dren-Evelvn, her brothers
Spencer and Rowland, and L
Wil-
helminai-had the opportunity Fig. 1. Evelyn
De Morgan, The
Gilde
to travel extensively in England 35'/4"
x 42". De Morgan Foundation, L
and on the continent \vhile still
FALL 1997 / WINTER 1998
ed
Lon
young. Evelyn's parents also encouraged her education, providing
the samie home schooling for her that her brothers at first received.
She leanled Greek and Latin in addition to French, German, and
Italian, and studied classical literature and mythology.2
The family, especially on her mother's side, was well educated in
the arts. Her uncle John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope (1829-1908),
described by his mentor Burne-Jones as "the finest colourist in Eu-
rope," has been cited often as a formative influence on the young
Evelyn's work.: He probably introduced her to the art of the Italian
Renaissance, which she also studied at the National Gallery, and her
early interest in rich, deeply saturated colors, carefully described
details, and elegant, graceful poses is in part derived from his paint-
ing style. Several women of the Spencer-Stanhope family had re-
ceived the type of training in the arts given to young women of their
class. Evelvn's great-aunts, who had studied with Gainsborough,
gave up their art upon marrying, and her mother viewed her own
sketching as only one of the accomplishments of a lady.
Evelyn experienced considerable opposition to her professional
goals. According to Wilhelmina, their mother was dismayed by the
intensity of Evelyn's dedication, describing it as an "obsession" and
a passing mania." In her view, such a passionate focus on a career
un(lermined the cultural ideal of feminine passivity and sub-
serxience and disrupted her sense of family norms. Her mother's
lamenet,
"I w\ant a daughter-not an artist," was recorded by XWil-
helmina, who described Evelyn as "brilliant, restless and withal
frightening.... I could not have framed any exact reasons for the im-
pression, but I felt dimly that at times she disturbed the Victorian
placidity of our home like a flash from an alien world."4
At each stage of her art edu-
: cation Evelvn seems to have
met opposition: "In acting thus,
her pareits were influlenced
by
dual motives-first the belief
that her devotion to Art \was
not serious; secondly, the fear
that it might
become so." Eve-
lyn either responded wMith
sub-
terfuge or simply refused to
give in to familx deman0ds
for
more ladylike behavior. Her
sister remembers her hiding
the supplies in her bedroom,
painting
with rags stuffed un-
der the door to prevent the
smells of paint and turpenltine
from escaping.
Her parents
fi-
nall,v
hired
a teaclher
to instnict
her in dra\ring
fruits and flow-
ers, although he quickly re-
00 signed
when Evelyn
gave
him a
sketch of a nude male drawn
from
a wooden model.
Painting
ICage (c. 1905-10), oil on canvas, and drawing for hours each
ndon.
Photo: Courtauld
Institute of Art. day-sometimes as many as
nine or ten she recorded in a
0

Fig. 3. Evelyn De Morgan, The Dryad
(1884-85), oil on panel,
41 /4" x 1
7/4". De Morgan Foundation,
London. Photo: Courtauld Institute
of Art.
diary she kept at age sixteen that "art is eternal, but life is short, and
each minute idly spent will rise, swelled to whole months and years,
and hound me in my grave. This year every imaginable obstacle has
been put in my way, but slowly and tediously I am mastering them
all. Now I must do something-I wvill
work till I do something."5
Despite her family's belief that "to a certain section in society, to
be an amateur in all things was admissible, but to be professional or
proficient in any one was anathema,"
Evelyn was allowed to enroll at
age 17 in the Slade School of Art at University College, London. Her
parents grudgingly consented, contingent on what must have been
an embarrassing encumbrance, a maid to act as chaperon." The
Slade, which had opened in 1871, two years before Evelyn Pickering
arrived,
was one of the few academies that welcomed women and al-
lowed them the opportunity to study from live models. As director
Edward Poynter explained, he was "anxious to institute a class where
the half-draped model might be studied, to give those ladies who are
desirous of obtaining sound instruction in drawing the figure, an op-
portunity of gaining the necessary knowledge.'" Many of Pickering's
student drawings show7
her careful attention to anatomy. She contin-
ued to make preparatory drawvings
for her paintings, examining indi-
vidual poses, particular
body parts, and facial expressions, as well as
planning the overall composition. Almost a quarter of her works in-
clude nude figures, and even figures that are draped often were ex-
plored first through nude sketches.
A study trip to Rome in 1875, followed by a stay in Florence in
1876-77, where she must have lived with her uncle at his new villa,
were significant ventures abroad for a young woman. The trip alone
to Rome was especially difficult for her parents to condone, and her
insistence on going despite their opposition led them to view her, at
least temporarily, "much in the light of a parial." She further under-
mined their expectations by refilsing to be presented at court or "go
0
into Society," asserting, "No one
shall drag mie out with a halter
round mv neck to sell me!"'
Soon after her return from
Rome she sold her first painting,
St. Catherine of Alexandria (c.
1875), for ?40. A ?year later her
unusual mythological subject of
Cadnlrts andl Harinonia (1877;
- X"? Fig. 2), brought ?60. Both paint-
ings had been exhlibited at the
_
. *, . _ ,.. Dudley Gallery. In 1877 she
participatedl in the opening of
8)
filthe news Grosvenor Gallerx
, one
of only ten womenl among the
Prvate C
leion sixty-four invited artists. Her
~T.~ __I , FAriadne at Naxos (1877) sold
quickly." She continuled her as-
sociation with the Grosvenor,
showing at annual exhibitions
there until 1888, when she
moved to the New Gallery. Dur-
ing this period anti up until her
marriage in 1d887,
her paintings
were also shox1l at the WAalker
Art Gallery in Liverpool, the
Royal Manchester Institution,
the Royal Institute of Painters in
Fig.
4. Evelyn
De Morgan,
Clytie
(1886- W\atercolour, the Institute of
87), oil on canvas,
41 /2"
x 171/2". ainter i the
or of
Painters in Oil Colollrs, and the
Private
Collection,
Argentina.
Photo:
Sotheby's
Picture
Library,
London. Fine Arts
Society.
Al-nost all of her early works
were derived from biblical, mythological, and literarx sources.
Pickering's choice of history painting, especially at this early stage
of her career, made a clear statement about her aspirations as a
professional artist. Additionally, her use of the oil mediumt
and of a
full-lelgth feimale nude in her second exhibited painting, Cadmn
s
and Harrmaonia,
asserted her desire to compete on equal terims
writh
male artists. Already her st?yle
was distinctive, showing little
influence of Spencer-Stanhope or his Pre-Raphaelite colleagues;
the figural proportions are closer to those in Botticelli's Birtlh of
Vemnus
and Primnavera,
whlich she had copied as a student. Harmo-
nia's body is remarkably elongated, lean and litlie. Like her later
nudes, the lines are graceful and flowing and the overall rhythm of
the silhouette is more important than the anatomical details.
Throughout her career she preferred a generalized type, expres-
sionless and idealized, repeated from painting to painting; few of
these woilen can be traced to specific individuals, and if she
worked from models she was careful to axoid ani sense of fleeting
expression or spontaneous motion. In the case of Harmonia, she is
less an indixidutal
actor in the narrative than a stymbolic
ttse, and
in fact Pickering took considerable liberties xvith the storvx,
from
Ovid's lletamlorphloses, to focus on Harmnonia.
The narrative pre-
sents the devotion betw\een an elderly couple at a moment of great
sorrow, as Harmonia, aghast at her husband's sudden transforma-
tion into a serpent, begs the gods for a similar fate.
NWNhy
did the young Pickering choose a mythological story that
would require reconceiving an elderly woman as a youthfull
one, in-
stead of starting with Venus or any one of a number of other, more
obvious classical possibilities? On the one hand, she was probably
hoping to present herself not only as a skilled artist but also as wvell
educated, with more than just a superficial knowledge of the clas-
sics. But the young artist's choice also reveals a desire to reconsti-
WOMAN'S ART
JOURNAL
Fig. 2. Evelyn De Morgan, Cadmus and
Harmonia (1877), oil on canvas,
40'/4" x 173/4". De Morgan Foundation,
London. Photo: Courtauld Institute
of Art.
k I~

tute the female, while still remaining within the rather narrow
bounds of what was considered necessary.
for success in the profes-
sion. Altholugh Ovid's Cadmus played the role of the tragic hero,
with Harmonia simply an adjunct, the archetype of the loving wife,
Pickering oriented her representation around the woman. Picker-
ing's Harmonia is pivotal to the artist's conception of the symbolic
significance of this narrative. She is a woman caught between two
worlds: she resolves the opposition between her parents, Venus
and Mars, and is portrayed at the moment of balance between two
physical states, the mammalian and reptilian. The nude is painted
in cool silvery-grey shades that echo the underside of the snake
coiled around her legs and torso, thus emphasizing the imagined
feel of scale upon flesh. But as the mountains behind her give way
to the lush spring growth (symbolizing renewal), so too her cycle of
change will bring a new and unexpected harmony. This interpreta-
tion of the mnth-centering the story around a female protagonist
and using her as an allegory of spiritual transformation (so that her
youth signifies new life)-was characteristic of the artist's approach
throughout her career.
In The Dnjad (1884-85; Fig. 3), too, Pickering transformed the
woman:l here the pagan wood-nymph becomes a Christian symbol of
redemption and rebirth. Unlike other nymphs, dryads were mortal
since their existence was so inextricably
bound to the life-span of the
trees in which they lived. In this way they
shared a common lot with humans and were .
emblematic of the natural process of aging,
death, and decay. The dryads'
association
with
Pan also might help to explain the sorrowful
air of Pickering's
nymlph,
since Christian
poets
often have used the death of that pagan spirit
as a siig of religious renewal through Christ.
Pickering could have been introduced to these
ideas through Elizabeth Barrett Browning's
"The Dead Pan," in which sorrow and nostal-
gia are mixed with joy at this moment of the 'r ~
two deaths, Pan's and Christ's, marking a
world in transition.'"
Pickering's
use of the fe- l_
male as a sign of suchI
transfonnation is central '
to many of her images, including Luna (1885)
and The Sea Mlaildenls
(1885-86). The dryad,
modeled after the Pickerings' servant, Jane
Hales, is young and healthy, although her tree
is obviously past its prime. Symbols of her
mortality surround her: the lizard, used as a :
Christian symbol of rebirth because of its "
practice of shedding its skin and hibernating
during the winter; the irises, which refer to ^
spring and to the Passion of Christ; and the .
wvheat,
symbolizing new life received through r
the Eucharist. These were common smnbols
in Renaissance art, and Pickering probably ^
was exposed to some of theml
firsthand,
for ex-
ample, in Botticelli's Madonna of the Eu-
charist, which was in the Chigi collection in "
Rome until 1898, or in Hugo van der Goes's
Portinari
Altarq)iece,
in the Uffizi."
The dark colors in the foreground of The
Dr7ad, with brown, grey, and olive predomi-
nating, are set against the pale sheen of the
sea lit by the first glow of daw\n.
This body of
water can be related, as in manx other paint- Fig.
5. Evelyn
De Mor
ings by this artist, such as Port After Stormy canvas,
78" x 34". De N
Seas (1905), to the idea of death as an expuanse Photo:
Courtai
FALL 1997 / WINTER
1998
gan
Aorg
uld
Ir
that must be traversed. Once again Pickering reconstituted the fe-
male as a positive emblem of transformation,
for her dryad is far re-
moved from the eroticized wood-nymphs so often displayed in late-
19th-century paintings, in which the tree operates as both phallus
(implicating the woman in the sexual encounter) and container (thus
confining her to a static and passive role in relation to that phallus).'2
In one of the rare cases of critical notice for Pickering, this paint-
ing was dismissed as an "imitation
of her master's work."'3
iWhen cit-
ed, her work generally was grouped with that of Spencer-Stanhope,
J. M. Strudwick, and Walter Crane, as inferior derivations from the
style of Bume-Jones or the Italian Renaissance. Her figures were at
various times characterized as lacking in spontaneity and deficient in
draughtsmanship.'4
A few notices compared her favorably
with oth-
er women exhibitors, saying her Venus and Cupid (1878), for exam-
ple, "proves her to be one of the truest artists among women, rare as
they have been."'5 An occasional reviewer took her work more seri-
ously: a description of By the Waters of Babylon (1883) warned
about certain "mannerisms" but allowed "that the artist's
conception
is imaginative, and her study of attitude in many cases striking for
dramatic intensity, while her colouring is in its arrangement of iso-
lated masses both rich and noble within a grave scale.""'
Like The Dryad, Pickering's
image of Clytie (1886-87; Fig. 4), ex-
hibited at the Grosvenor in 1887, also reconceives a popular nmtho-
logical figure from a woman's perspective.
' ^
: " ' ....Clytie,
usually cited in the 19th centurn as an
example of woman's constancy to the superior
male, appears as such in Frederic Leighton's
two paintings of this subject. Leighton de-
scribed his portrayal
of ClYtie as kneeling "in
adoration before the setting sun, whose last
rays are permeating her whole being."'1 By
using the language of sexual possession, he
confirmed this male appropriation
of the sto-
ry. Pickering's Clytie is shown shielding her
eyes from the glare of the sun rather than fol-
*,? /! _^ ~ lowing its path in mute and selfless devotion.
ts ^ _^^ Her Clytie stands upright, nude as Ovid de-
/,
-'s 'scribed
her, and already rooted in a patch of
|?,i _ _
^ l carefully detailed sunflowers. To further em-
<8
'
" ^ phasize this radical reorientation of the myth,
ztt ^
j ~ ~Pickering painted Clytie with her eyes closed,
^
:"t "
~ kl raising her arms to her head to shield herself
!*
, ^mHji ] from the damaging rays.' Behind her lies the
open water, the water nymph's true home;
^^^^ ^ _^^
~ but she is now dispossessed, literally and
metaphorically stripped. Her tragic story
must have seemed particularly relevant to
Pickering at this moment in her own life,
when she was prepariing for imarriage.
41
:i
lli: Pickering's tenacity and focus on her ca-
reer were remarkable at a time when
Ei~.~!:^ ~ women often were described as delicate,
lacking in stamina, and prone to superficial
pleasures. She was undoubtedly concerned
i^; ^^^,^ ~ that her 1887 marriage to William De Mor-
gan not follow the usual example, leading to
the curtailing of her career. She persisted
with her art, continuing to paint "all day
long and nearly every day for more than
forty years," according to one acquaintance.
, Flora
(1894),
oil on Another noted that "Evelvn and W\illiaml De
an Foundation,
London. Morgan were absolutely one: one in svmpa-
nstitute
of
Art. thy, in intelligence and its direction, one in
0

Fig.
6. Evelyn
De Morgan, Hope in the Prison of Despair
(c. 1887), oil on panel,
23" x 25'/2".
Location unknown. Photo: Courtauld Institute of Art.
tastes,
and in perfect companionship....
He believed
in her Art and
she in his."'"
During their engagement, for example, they held
joint exhibitions at his showroom, and her sales later helped to
support
his pottery factory
during
the two decades before his lu-
crative second career as a novelist
began in 1906.
Their
marriage
was also affected
by William's
poor
health,
which
resulted
in their relocation to Florence for the six
winter months
of
each year,
from 1890 to 1914. She continued to paint
there, bring-
ing her canvases back to London for summer
and fall exhibitions.
Despite an impressive
exhibition record between 1887 and 1906,
rarely
did she show more than two or three of her works at a time.
Her paintings
were meticulously
finished,
their
careful
detailing
and
high degree of polish requiring
considerable time to complete.
Her
most
reliable
patron
was a Liverpool shipowner,
William
Imrie,
who
bought
The Dryad after it was exhibited at the Grosvenor
in 1885,
and purchased
or commissioned seven more paintings between
1893 and 1898. Of her 101 known oil paintings,
more than a third
never
were exhibited
publicly.
Most either were given
to or bought
by members
of the Spencer-Stanhope family
or remained
in her
possession
to be claimed
by her family
after her death.""
Evelyn
Pickering
De Morgan
continued to paint
her mythologi-
cal, biblical,
and literary subjects, using the vertical format of the
single standing
female
figure.
Imrie
was
particularly
attracted to this
compositional
form,
judging
from his purchase
of Flora, Eos, Cas-
sandra,
and Helen
of Troy,
among
others.2' Since she often used the
figures
to represent allegorical types
or abstract
ideals,
she frequent-
ly repeated poses and facial
types to reinforce
thematic
continuity.
The facial features, expression,
and tilt of the head in one chalk
study in the De Morgan
Foundation,
for example, reappear
with
minor
variations
in at least five paintings, including
Flora,
Helen
of
Troy,
and
Lux
in Tenebris.
Another
pose that she used for her early
Deianira (1878)22-with
both hands placed in despair
over a bent
head-is borrowed
for later women also pining
for something
lost,
as, for example, Clytie or The Captives (c. 1905-10).
De Morgan's best-known painting is Flora (Fig. 5), painted in
Italy, dated May 1894. This painting, like several from the 1890s,
was clearly inspired by Botticelli in the choice of subject, the grace-
ful, attenuated figure, the clarity of the thin, delicate contour line,
and the flattened, tapestrylike effect of the whole. De Morgan's in-
0
terest in Botticelli was not just the result of her extended study of
his works in Italy; it should also be seen as arising out of a wide-
spread Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic fascination with that artist's
style." Whether or not she knew the specific passages from Marsilio
Ficino that inspired Botticelli's portrayal of Primavera
or, more likely, was aware of the Neoplatonic ideas behind them,
De Morgan created a similar spiritualized goddess, layering Christ-
ian meaning over pagan imagery. She had already used spring flow-
ers, like the light of dawn, as a sign of spiritual awakening, and the
overblown red roses refer to both the ephemeral nature of earthly
life and the blood of redemption and resurrection. Her metaphori-
cal interpretation is elaborated by the symbolic presence of the birds.
Because of their reappearance each spring, swallows (as on Flora's
red scarf) are a Christian symbol of resurrection, and goldfinches (on
the tree behind her) refer to the Passion of Christ and, by association,
spiritual renewal. This conjunction of pagan myths with Christian al-
lusions to rebirth allowed De Morgan to construct her own variant of
Prinavera. By taking her out of the narrative context provided by
Ovid and isolating her as a monumental, life-size figure who address-
es us directly through her gaze and words-"I came down from Flo-
rence and am Flora" (inscribed on a scroll at the lower right)-the
artist gave her a new measure of independence. She is dressed in a
pale creamy-yellow dress, decorated with clusters of pansies, which
takes on added luminosity against the dark
vegetation. The overall ef-
fect of this dense, lush network of patterns, painted with small, pre-
cise strokes, is delicate and ethereal, very different from the nude,
sexualized Flora in an undated panel of the same subject by her un-
cle, also inspired by Botticelli."4
After her marriage Evelyn's attention became even more clearly
focused on spiritual issues, which affected her choice of allegorical
themes. The De Morgans were interested in Spiritualism, a popular
movement in late-19th-century England that explored the connec-
tions between the spiritual world of the afterlife and the world of
flesh, matter, and mortality. Many Victorian Spiritualists held group
seances with professional mediums, but the De Morgans avoided
such public displays in favor of home sessions, where they practiced
automatic writing. They would link hands and wait for the spirits to
manifest themselves through the pen they held together, in a form
of communication described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, president
of the London Spiritualist Alliance, as "the highest and most valu-
able" form of spiritualist activity."-
For the De Morgans, this prac-
tice resulted in many pages of written messages that they believed
came from the spirits of recently deceased friends or relatives, or
from what were identified as angels or unknown spirits. These mes-
sages, published anonymously by the De Morgans in 1909 as The
Result of an Experiment, give important insight into many of Eve-
lyn's painted allegories.2"
The themes of material encumbrance and imprisonment con-
trasting with the freedom of the spirit, found repeatedly in her
paintings from the 1890s on, also appear in the automatic writings.
One passage identified as coming from "a spirit of Light" revealed
that "I once was on Earth, fettered in the prison of the body. Now I
am free." Reference is made to being "bound in the flesh," and to
the body as a burden against which one struggles. The spirit, howev-
er, "rejoices in its freedom, and shouts with gladness at the strong
life opening up before it....Earth life is dull, cold, grey, and the spir-
it is cramped in the prison of clay, but outside the sun of the spirit-
spheres shines, and the glory and light of Heaven is a great reality.'"2
De Morgan translated these images into paintings that are striking
for the moral seriousness of their content as well as their detailed,
polished surfaces and richly saturated, glowing colors.
The Gilded Cage (Fig. 1), for example, presents a contrast be-
tween freedom and confinement. A world-weary man sits listlessly by
WOMAN'S ART
JOURNAL

his books while his young wife looks long-
ingly out of the window. Despite their ma-
terial luxuries-rich fabrics, jewels, books,
flowers-the woman clearly yearns for an
unencumlbered life outside, symbolized by t,
the dancers. Although her pose echoes that
of the lead dancer at the right, she is
weighed down by her clothing. She be-
comes a counterpart to the caged bird at
her right: both heads are raised, their full
throats seeking a voice; they are vern unlike
their wNild,
soaring counterparts outside.
The imagery in this painting is embedded in
both Spiritualist ideology and the De Mor-
gans' automatic writing. Although the spirits
recognize that "doubt and materialism
cloud the path," they also present the possi-
bility of a trajectory upward, out of the
bondage of physicality toward spiritual har-
mony and freedom: "The scales fell from
my eyes and I saw the light; and when death
came I rose bright and triumphant, and my
spirit was strong, and the upward flight Fig. 7. Evely"
De Morgan
easy. Glories such as you cannot conceive Moon
(c. 1905-10), oil
met my eyes, and music such as you have Location unknown. Phot
never dreamt of made my soul glad."'s
It is surely significant that here, again, De Morgan's
protagonist is
a woman. The Soul's Prison House (1888) and The Prisoner (1907-
08) also show women alone, imprisoned by bars and weighed down
by their clothes and jewelry. Earlier, in Hope in the Prison of Despair
(c. 1887; Fig. 6), the woman is hunched in her cell in a posture of de-
feat, joined by a figure of Hope, who holds aloft a light and whose
rich red headdress and scarf energize the
dark browns and greys of the prison.2'
Hope is a recurrent theme in the automat-
ic writing, often accompanied by the im-
agery of light:
"Out of the gloom will come
light, out of dejection hope," and "I am an
Angel, and I come to bring you hope and
faith. I long to shed my light on those in
darkless and bring comfort to the sorrow-
ing."' In Hope in the Prison of Despair De
Morgan emphasizes the sharp contrast be-
tween light and darkness, upright strength
and debilitating weakness, but she also
bridges the gap by the addition of a relief
sculpture above the head of Hope, in
which two silhouetted wLomen support
each other in an embrace. In the De Mor-
gans' interaction xith the spirit-world,
love
is a guiding force: "Most surely is love
needed to lead the spirit up to the light.":3'
The strength of a community, visual-
ized most often by De Morgan as a coim-
munit-i
of women, is represented in several
of her works. She knew ai number of like-
min(led
(women such as Georgiana Bume-
Jones, May Morris,
Emily Ford, and Marie
Spartali
Stillman, but there is no evidence
that they were close fiiends. Her paintings ='
should l)e read as constructions of a utopi- Fig.
8. Evelyn
De Morgan,
an spiritual relationshiip rather than auto- canvas,
41" x 20'/2".
De
biographical revelations. In The Captives Photo:
Courta
, Sle
on c
o: C
The
Mor
uld I
FALL 1997 / WINTER
1998
(c. 1905-10; inside front cover), five young
. women, so close in appearance that they
seem to be sisters, cower in a cave before an
onslaught of ephemeral dragons. The viewer
is caught first by the beauty of the painting-
the polished and shimmering surface, the al-
...=, 1most iridescent shades of rose, lavender, vio-
let, and peach--and only later by the im-
pending threat. The dragons are, after all,
semitransparent, and the rocks and stalac-
tites are not dark and grim but like delicately
tinted stage props. The dragons have been
variously interpreted. De Morgan's
sister de-
scribed them as "phantasms
of [the subjects']
own creation"
and evidence of their "spiritual
stagnation and blindness,"32
while Jan Marsh
called them "fearsome demons of patri-
archy.""3
Like many educated women of the
period, De Morgan advocated women's suf-
frage (her signature is on the 1889 and 1897
"Declaration in Favour of Women's Suf-
frage"),
and she probably
supported the 1882
aeping
Earth
and Waking Married Women's Property Law reforms.
anvas, 17/4" x 13'/2". The dominant message in The Captives, I
ourtauld Institute
of Art. would argue, is not the presence of the drag-
ons but the rhythmic, harmonious linkage of
women, which may suggest salvation
through shared experience.
The sisterhood-of-womlen theme appears in several of De Mor-
gan's paintings, and often, as in The Stonl Spirits (1900), the fig-
ures are active rather than passive. Natural elements are personi-
fied in both The Storm Spirits and Daughters of the Mlist
(c. 1905-
10), in which the relaxed poses, combined with the powerful mo-
gl.
_ r
^^B ~tion and extension of some of the figures,
" woanrelsuggest
movement beyond the earth-
bound torpor of the embodied soul.
There are repeated references to
"growth"
and "development" in the auto-
matie writin along with the recognition
that spiritual growth can be painful, and
these images may represent those tumul-
tuous transitional states. In De Morgan's
Port after Stormy Seas (1905), a young
woman reclines, limp and exhausted, un-
der a clearing sky, whlile the personified
storm retreats at the right. Although its
energy suggests the possibility of de-
struction, there is also the underlying as-
sumption that without its powerful force
there would have been no movement, no
propulsive energy. This image was prob-
ably based on a passage in Spenser's The
Faerie Qlleene: "Sleep after toyle, port
after stormy seas, Ease after wvarre,
death
after life doe greatly please."' But it also
may have had autobiographical refer-
ences, given the events of 1905, a tumlll-
tuous, transitional year that perhaps left
them both depleted. This wcas the year
when W\illiam De Morgan finally closed
Ihis
pottery factory; the year that his first
love Potion
(1903), oil on novel, Joseph 7Vaince,
wvas
under consider-
-gan
Foundation,
London. ation by a publisher (having been sent in
nstitute
of Art. secret by Evelyn); and the year she was
0

preparing
for her first one-woman
exhibition
in Bruton
Gallery.
The contrasts
between light and dark
in Port
after Stormy
Seas
and numerous other
paintings
carry symbolic
meanings.
Reference is
made
in the automatic
writings
to being
"much in the dark
on earth"
and
to being
"intensely happy,
growing up into the light."3
De Mor-
gan translated
these rather
straightforward
allusions into paint
in a
variety
of ways.
She symbolized
the world
of the spirits
as light
in im-
ages of dawn or Aurora,
the moon, the morning
and evening
stars,
and Lux-giving preference
to the penumbral
states that connote
transition rather
than to bright sunlight,
traditionally personified
as a
male force. Our mortal
world,
characterized
by darkness,
was visual-
ized by sleeping,
chained,
or bound figures,
shadowy
recesses,
and
dark-robed
personifications
of Night. Sleeping
Earth and Waking
Moon (c. 1905-10;
Fig. 7), for example,
shows
the allegory
of light
rising buoyantly
over the symbols
of darkness and entrapment.
Al-
though
the moon was often associated
with the feminine
during
the
Victorian
period,
illustrating
what was seen as woman's
inherently
passive
and "reflective"
character,
De Morgan
recreated
Luna as a
positive
emblem
of transformation.
Building
on the ambiguity
of the
moon-its cool glow
being
neither
fully
dark nor fully
light,
its cycli-
cal phases-she represents
it as an allegory
of spiritual growth.
This
metaphor
was used as early
as 1885,
in Luna,
where
we are remind-
ed of the process
of detachment
from
physical
embodiment
toward
spiritual
release: The
woman is caught
by looping
coils
of rope,
as the
moon
itself is bound
to its earthly
orbit,
while
in Sleeping
Earth
and
Waking
Moon
the upward
trajectory
is more clearly
suggested.
The
moon, waking
now, has no fetters, and her nudity reinforces the
sense of freedom.
That she is almost
a mirror-image
of the sleeping
figure
of Earth
points
to the close association
between
body
and
spir-
it and
the Spiritualists'
view of the natural
and
necessary
transforma-
tion
from
captive
matter to transcendent
spirit.
This
state of transformation
was a more
compelling
artistic
chal-
lenge for De Morgan
than
visualizing
the actual attainment
of the
spirit
world.
She saw
death,
too, as a transition,
as "the
entrance
to
Life."36
It is not surprising,
then, that De Morgan depicted Death
as a gentle,
welcoming
female figure,
as in the two versions
of The
Angel
of Death from 1880 and 1890. A compositional parallel
can
be drawn
between these paintings
and Sleeping
Earth and Waking
Moon. In both subjects there is a mirror-image
relationship
be-
tween a reclining
figure, still caught by the earth, and the figure
leaning
over
it, symbolizing
release.
The tension
of opposition
is re-
lieved
by the gentle,
melancholic
grace
of the poses and
gestures.
The recognition
that
a state of harmony
is creative
and
productive
is underscored
in this
passage
from
The
Result
of an Experiment:
You are
not to think
that the only
reason
for doing
Art is to make
life
beautiful.
The
reality
it teaches
is true as well as beautiful....
I think
the best
thing
to strive
for is the realisation
that Art
should
be Har-
mony.
The
second
thing
to grasp
is that
Harmony
is the creative
force, and
Discord
the power
of dissolution.
In mortal
life Harmony
reigns,
in evil life Discord
is paramount.
Out
of Harmony
comes
growth.
Out
of Discord death
and
destruction.
In life on earth
growth
is slain
by Discord,
and
Harmony
tends
to
fruition.37
This excerpt is a clear statement of De Morgan's
aesthetic ap-
proach:
an emphasis
on the beauty
of finely
worked
details
and
pol-
ished surfaces,
a harmony
of richly
saturated
colors, an intricate
balance of forms, and carefully
refined compositions. Her style
blended the graceful,
detailed
precision
of Quattrocento
and Pre-
Raphaelite
art,
filtered
through
the paintings
of Spencer-Stanhope
and Bure-Jones, and
reflecting
her own spiritual
aesthetic.
Her meticulously
crafted
imagery
served
as a vehicle
for the ex-
pression
of her Spiritualist
ideas;
ironically,
however,
her technique,
0
centered
on aesthetics,
also could be seen as fostering
the cult
of ma-
terialism
against
which
her whole
belief-system
rebelled.
Indeed,
the
trap
of materialism served
as the dominant
theme
in several
paintings.
In Earthbound
(1897), for example, an elderly gold-robed
king,
clutching
a pile of coins,
reclines on the rocky
ground,
oblivious
to his
surroundings.
His earthly
glory
is about
to be obscured
by the shad-
ows of Night personified,
while in the background
a spirit
hovers,
ethereal
and
wraithlike,
no longer
attached to the weight
of the earth.
The Spiritualist
overtones
are clarified
in an
inscription
that
accompa-
nied the painting
when it was exhibited,
warning
that
"The
soul that
knows no second birth/Shall
wane,
fast held
by Mother Earth."38
De Morgan painted
a number of large allegories
in this middle
period,
often with titles that
convey
the sweeping
scope of her mor-
alizing message. The Garden of Opportunity (1892), Life and
Thought
Have
Gone
Away
(1893),
Blindness
and Cupidity
Chasing
Joy
from the City (1897),
and
Mercy
and Truth
Have Met
Together,
Righteousness
and Peace Have Kissed Each Other (1898).39
Al-
though she portrayed
a few biblical narratives
in the 1870s and
1880s,
her later
works are usually
based on general
moral themes.
Warnings
against
dogma (for example,
"the spirit
who would see
God must cast aside the chains
of dogma")
occur
frequently
in The
Result
of an Experiment.40
Striving
for general truths rather than
specific religious
or narrative
meanings,
she developed
a symbolic
language
to convey
her didactic
intent.
A revealing
comparison
can
be made
with the art
of G. F. Watts,
her uncle's teacher.
Watts's
in-
terest
in Theosophy
led him to claim that
"the
only
reality
that exists
is the spiritual."
Although
his mysticism
is in some
ways
close to De
Morgan's Spiritualism,
Watts would undoubtedly
have considered
her style inappropriate
for the transmission
of spiritual
meaning.
He
was convinced
that "a
great
work
of art
should seem to be an ema-
nation rather
than a construction,"
and he "purposely
abstained
from
any attempt
to make the figures
seem real."41
De Morgan's
at-
tempt
to portray
ideas
using
tangible,
detailed
forms
was at variance
with the looser, more suggestive
approach
of Watts or the rather
fluid and often ambiguous
style of the French Symbolists.
Despite
their
differences,
Watts
described
her as being
"a
long
way
ahead
of
all the women,
and
considerably
ahead
of most of the men,"
and as
"the first
woman-artist
of the day-if not of all time."42
Two mature
works
that explore
the nature
of female authority
through the practice of sorcery are Queen Eleanor and Fair
Rosamund
(c. 1903;
inside front
cover)
and The
Love Potion
(1903;
Fig. 8). The profile
poses reinforce
the sense of intensity
in these
paintings,
both
of which
reveal
a characteristic
Pre-Raphaelite
inter-
est in medieval
subjects
and
decorative
detailing.
In the former,
De
Morgan
was concerned
less with historical
reality
than symbolism,
reinterpreting
the legend of the confrontation
between Henry II's
mistress
and his wife. She probably
encountered
the story
through
the various mid-century retellings, including Swinburne's
"Rosamund"
(1860)
and
images
by Bume-Jones
and D. G. Rossetti.
Although
in these Rosamund
was constructed
as both the center
of
the romance
and the focus of sympathy,
De Morgan
gave equal
weight
to the powerful
figure
of the queen. She translated
the tale
into an epic conflict
between
what seems at first
glance
to be calcu-
lating evil and graceful innocence, setting the two halves of the
composition
in opposition:
the assertive
queen versus
the cowering
Rosamund,
jutting
profile
versus
oval
face, demonic
bats,
monkeys,
and winged serpents versus cherubic putti and semitransparent
white
doves,
and
red roses
of passion
versus
the white rose
of death.
The red string
drawn
forth
by Eleanor
is a powerful
compositional
element. Referring
to the thread used to navigate
the maze that
protected
Rosamund,
it also may
be symbolic
of the life soon to be
cut (thus
placing
the queen in the role of one of the Fates, coolly
administering
a sentence of death). Its taut line separates
the two
WOMAN'S ART
JOURNAL

\vomen and intndl(es be-
tween the two lovers in
the stained-glass win- _ -.
dow, symbolic images of - .
Henrv and Rosamiund, ',
illicitly couplel. De
Morgan was interested ^
in the strength and intel-
ligence of the wNomen, ?
and for this reason the _
dichotomy so sharply
drawn here is not only
between Eleanor and
Rosamund vying for the
king's love but also be-
tween their active and
passive temperaments.43
The dark creatures that
accompany Eleanor un-
derscore the subversive
aspects
of her character,
aspects
of her character, Fig.
9. Evelyn
De Morgan,
Death of the Dra
but despite thle
dualistic
but
despite
the dualistic De Morgan
Foundation,
Londor
treatment of the com-
position there seems to be more intended than a simple contrast be-
tween good and evil: We see the fatal consequences that result
vwhen humans abandon themselves to love. Physical passion is tran-
sient, as symbolized in the transparent doves, wilted roses, and
weeping putti, and the lovers are unable to progress beyond physi-
cality toward spiritual enlightenment.
Unlike most late-19th-century images of sorceresses, which em-
phasize the demonic and subversive character of the women, the
magician in The Love Potion is presented as a scholar. She is seated
in her study with leather-bound volumes of Agrippa von Nettesheim
and Paracelsus, among others, to indicate her status as an alchemist.
The only animals in evidence are hardly demonic: stylized lions in
the background tapestry and a housecat curled at her feet. Inclusion
of this black cat seems to undermine our expectations about "witch-
es" and their obligatory attributes, but it also fits into the overall
symbolic color scheme. In the alchemical system the four colors that
mark the progressive stages toward the ultimate attainment of spiri-
tual illumination are black (the material state of sin, guilt, and
death), white, red, and yellow (the final level before the gold of sal-
vation). The cat can be read as a creature of the night (its blackness
suggesting its connection to the undeveloped Prime Matter), set in
opposition to the red lions, symbolizing light.44
The composition
moves in a tonal spiral, from the black cat to the white cloth at the
left, to the red on the seat cushion (picked up in the lions and the
woman's shoes and headdress), and finally to the alchemist's golden-
yellow gown. An understanding of alchemical symbolism identifies
this woman as not only at the height of her profession but also at the
highest stage of spiritual development.
De Morgan's late period, beginning in 1906, is marked primarily
by a shift in her exhibition record. In fact, her art remained re-
markably consistent throughout her career, although she increas-
ingly turned away from specific narrative sources to spiritual alle-
gories. Except for 1908-09, when she briefly returned to her for-
mer practice of having annual shows, she concentrated on fewer
but larger exhibitions of her work. Her production rate remained
the same, however, and her friend May Morris recalled: "She had
astonishing physical endurance and power of work, starting to paint
early in the morning and going on swiftly and surely throughout the
day."4 Stirling noted that "each successive painting was thus set
aside to be forgotten; and another promptly begun. Work and the
FAL 1997 / WINTER
1998
gon
n. Ph
"JP , necessity
for self-expres-
sion sufficed." There are
i-. . . .................."
several
possible explana-
tions for what her sister
reconid
te issues of workX f characterized as a
progress so oft~en "nascent aversion" to ex-
ws er in
reashibiting during these
ing one
sow,Z.
proba_ years.4"
The family finan-
::i'
V!.~z; cial situation changed
dramatically in 1906
I! .....l w
i t o iwith the success of
MostI:< of DM ahWlilliam's first novel
(which went through
eight editions in the first
year and a half). She also
suffered several injuries
in 1909, including
a seri-
p t o e
w e a o t
tsous dislocation of her
shoulder.4
Publication
in
1909 of The Restllt of an
(c. 1917-18), oil on canvas,
353/4"
x 50" Eperient must have
taken considerable time
ioto: Courtauld Institute
of Art. te onsi e
and possibly led her to
reconsider the issues of work, fame, materialism, and spiritual
progress so often discussed in its pages. Another significant factor
was her increasing distance from current artistic trends. After see-
ing one show, probably the first exhibition of Postimpressionist art
in London in 1910, she concluded, "If that is what people like now,
I shall wait till the turn of the tide."4o
Most of De Morgan's works from her last years center around
her response to World War I, translating the historical events into
the language of allegory. Although she occasionally focused on the
cross-marked grave as the site of loss and despair, the wrenching
physicality of death was generally offset by the symbolism. In-
formed by her Spiritualist views about death and the afterlife,
these paintings were often mystical in tone, and they frequently
suggested a pacifist stance. In Death of the Dragon (c. 1917-18;
Fig. 9), De Morgan pieced together elements from her icono-
graphic storehouse to create a powerful representation of the tri-
umph of good over evil. A majestic white-robed angel floats above
the earth. Her elaborate
gold wings and rainbow
mandorla
sepa-
rate her from the wretched scene below, and her authority has
clearly awed the mortals
kneeling in the foreground.
The laurel
wreath confirms that she is an angel of peace, and behind her the
tranquil sea and rosy clouds of dawn (in contrast to the bloody
pools and scarlet
shades
in the foreground)
indicate that a new or-
der will soon be established. There is no specific reference to a
battlefield
here; instead,
in the foreground
five mortals
cower be-
fore the dragons. Three women in the center are utterly abject,
groveling on the ground with chained hands, while an elderly m-an
at the right kneels in a posture of prayer, his manacled hands
clasped
as he gazes up at the angel.
A more advanced
stage of en-
lightenment
is represented
in the woman
at the left, who has bro-
ken her bonds and, with one hand raised to the radiant
light, has
started
toward
the angel. The dragons
seem to represent
both the
bestiality
of war and the evil that fosters
conflict,
as well as spiritu-
al blindness.
The ultimate
victory
of hope and light over dark de-
spair
reiterates
a Spiritualist
theme that she had established
in ear-
lier paintings and in automatic-writing passages from the Boer
War period: "Light
will dawn and slowly the carnage
will cease,
and on earth
peace will again
reign;
but the darkness
of Hell is in
war, and woe to those who wilfully bring it on earth."4'
There is no trace of Modernism in De Morgan's late paintings.
0

Her art continued to display her trademark style: carefully ren-
dered details, deep, rich colors, and graceful, idealized figures
used in the service of Spiritualist allegory. After a Red Cross Ben-
efit Exhibition in 1916 and William's death in 1917, Evelyn De
Morgan continued to work: painting, planning another benefit ex-
hibition, modeling a headstone for her husband's grave, and com-
pleting his last two novels. According to her sister, she spent hours
in her studio just four days before her death of heart failure on
May 2, 1919, painting "from dawn to dusk" on a canvas that was
left unfinished when she died.50
?
NOTES
1. Catherine
Gordon,
ed., Evelyn
De Morgan:
Oil Paintings
(London:
De
Morgan
Foundation,
1996), 5-7. This
book,
published
in conjunction
with
the
recent exhibition of De Morgan's paintings
and drawings
at the Russell-Cotes
Art
Gallery,
Bournemouth,
includes a checklist of her
paintings,
a summary
of
her
exhibition
record,
and essays by Judy
Oberhausen on "Evelyn
De Morgan
and Spiritualism"
and "A Horror of War" and by Patricia Yates on "Evelyn
De
Morgan's
Use
of Literary
Sources
in Her
Paintings."
2. A. M. W. Stirling,
William
De Morgan
and his Wife
(New
York:
Henry
Holt,
1922), 144. See also the
chronology
in Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
9.
3. Stirling,
De
Morgan,
143.
4. Ibid., 173-74, and A. M. W. Stirling,
Life's Little
Day
(London:
Thornton
Butterworth,
1924), 26-27.
5. Stirling,
De Morgan,
173, 175-77.
6. Ibid.,
177-79. Before
enrolling
at the
Slade,
she studied for several
months,
beginning
in
October
1872, at the South
Kensington
National
Art
Training
School.
Pickering's high aspirations
were
apparently
at odds with this
school's
traditional
emphasis
on commercial arts
as well
as its more recent re-
orientation toward
the
polishing
of middle-class
"accomplishments."
7. Edward
J. Poynter,
Ten Lectures on Art,
2nd ed. (London:
Chapman
and Hall,
1880), 111-12. See also Pamela Gerrish
Nunn,
Victorian
Women
Artists
(London:
The
Women's
Press,
1987), 50-52, and C. J. Weeks,
"Women
at Work:
The Slade
Girls,"
The
Magazine
of Art (1883) 325-27.
Pickering
went
on to win
various
awards
and scholarships
at the
Slade.
8. Stirling,
De Morgan,
181, 185.
9. Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
28. Unless
otherwise
noted,
all of the
paintings
discussed
in
this
article are in
the
De Morgan
Foundation,
Old Battersea
House,
London. St. Catherine of Alexandria
was one of the
paintings by De
Morgan
that was destroyed
in a 1991 warehouse
fire.
The other women ex-
hibiting
at the
Grosvenor
in 1877 were Helen
Angell,
Kate
Carr,
Lady
Louisa
Charteris,
Margaret
Gillies,
Louise
Jopling,
Lady Lindsay,
Henrietta
Munro,
Marie
Spartali
Stillman,
and the
Countess
of Warwick.
See Christopher
Newall, The
Grosvenor
Gallery
Exhibitions:
Change
and Continuity
in the
Vic-
torian
Art
World
(Cambridge: Cambridge University,
1995), 141.
10. For
Browning's
poem,
see Harriet
Waters
Preston,
ed., The
Complete
Poetical Works
of Elizabeth
Barrett
Browning
(Boston:
Houghton
Mifflin,
1900), 188-91.
11. Hans
Biedermann,
Dictionary
of Symbolism,
James
Hulbert,
trans.
(New
York:
Penguin,
1992), 211; Erwin
Panofsky, Early
Netherlandish Paint-
ing, I (New York:
Harper
&
Row,
1971), 332-34; and Hilliard
T.
Goldfarb,
The Isabella
Stewart
Gardner
Museum
(New Haven: Yale
University,
1995),
126-29.
12. See Bram
Dijkstra,
Idols of Perversity:
Fantasies
of Feminine
Evil
in Fin-
de-Siecle
Culture
(New
York: Oxford
University,
1986), 94-99, for discussion
and illustrations
of the eroticized
dryad
at the turn of the
century.
13. "The
Grosvenor
Gallery:
Concluding
Notice,"
Illustrated
London
News
(May
23, 1885), 544.
14. In "Fine Arts:
The New Gallery,"
The
Athenaeum
(April
28, 1900),
534, a painting
of 1900 was described
as a "pseudo-Burne-Jones."
15. "The
Grosvenor
Gallery
(First
Notice),"
The Athenaeum
(May
4,
1878), 579.
16. Portfolio (June
1883), 125.
0
17. Joseph
A. Kestner,
Mythology
and Misogyny:
The Social Discourse
of
19th-Century
British
Classical-Subject
Painting
(Madison:
University
of Wis-
consin,
1989), 146, 161 (and 110 for his brief mention
of Pickering's
im-
age), and Stephen
Jones,
et al., Frederic,
Lord
Leighton
(New
York:
Abrams,
1996), 217, 240.
18. Pamela
Nunn,
Problem Pictures:
Women
and Men in Victorian Paint-
ing (Aldershot,
Eng.:
Scolar,
1995), 155, earlier noted
this
significant
depar-
ture from the
tradition;
see also Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
59.
19. Stirling,
De Morgan,
386, 11.
20. Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
11-12, 28-31.
21. Eos and The
Undiscovered
Country,
the
only
De Morgan
paintings
known
to be in
the United
States,
are both at the Columbia Museum of Art,
South
Carolina.
22. Deianira was last on the art
market at Sotheby's,
London,
March 1971.
23. See Walter Pater's 1870 essay on Botticelli in Donald L.
Hill,
ed., The
Renaissance: Studies
in Art
and Poetry (Berkeley: University
of California,
1980), 40, 45, 47.
24. Gail-Nina Anderson and
Joanne
Wright,
Heaven on Earth: The Reli-
gion of Beauty
in Late
Victorian
Art
(Nottingham,
Djanogly
Art
Gallery,
1994), 112-13.
25. Sir Arthur
Conan
Doyle,
The
History
of Spiritualism,
II
(1926; reprint,
New York: Arno
Press,
1975), 220-21. See also Alex
Owen, The
Darkened
Room:
Women,
Power and Spiritualism
in Late-Victorian
England
(Philadel-
phia: University
of Pennsylvania,
1990), 213-15.
26. The Result of an Experiment
(London:
Simpkin,
Marshall, Hamilton,
Kent,
&
Co., 1909). For a recent discussion of De Morgan's spiritualism,
see
Judy
Oberhausen,
"Evelyn Pickering
De Morgan
and Spiritualism:
An Inter-
pretive
Link,"
The
Journal
of Pre-Raphaelite
Studies
(Spring
1994), 1-19, and
her
essay in
Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
33.
27. The
Result of an Experiment,
70, 19, 25, 59.
28. Ibid., 53, 33.
29. Present
location
unknown;
sold at Sotheby's, Belgravia, July
1975.
30. The
Result of an Experiment,
73, 31.
31. Ibid., 39, 49.
32. Stirling,
De Morgan,
357.
33. Jan
Marsh,
Pre-Raphaelite
Women:
Images
of Femininity
(New York:
Harmony
Books,
1987), 152.
34. See Patricia
Yates,
"Evelyn
De Morgan's
Use of Literary
Sources
in Her
Paintings,"
in Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
70.
35. The Result of an Experiment,
2, 8, 26.
36. The Result of an Experiment,
61.
37. Ibid.,
78.
38. Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
21.
39. Life
and Thought
Have Gone
Away is in the
Walker
Art
Gallery,
Liver-
pool. Mercy
and Truth Have Met
Together
was among
those
paintings
de-
stroyed
in the 1991 warehouse
fire.
40. The Result of an Experiment,
159.
41. David
Stewart,
"Theosophy
and Abstraction
in the
Victorian
Era: The
Paintings
of G. F.
Watts,"
Apollo
(November 1993), 301-02.
42. Stirling,
De Morgan,
193.
43. Medea is in the Williamson
Art
Gallery
and Museum,
Birkenhead.
44. Mark
Haeffner,
The
Dictionary
of Alchemy
(Hammersmith:
Aquarian,
1991), 69, 89, and
J. E.
Cirlot,
A Dictionary
of Symbols,
Jack
Sage, trans.
(New
York:
Philosophical
Library,
1962), 6.
45. Stirling,
De Morgan,
192.
46. Ibid.,
309-10, 312.
47. Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
12.
48. Stirling,
De Morgan,
309.
49. The
Result
of an Experiment,
33-34.
50. Ibid.,
384; Gordon,
Oil Paintings,
92.
Elise Lawton Smith, Associate
Professor
of Art History, Millsaps
Col-
lege, Jackson,
Mississippi,
is completing
a book on Evelyn De Morgan.
WOMAN'S ART
JOURNAL

The
Captives
(c. 1905-10), oil on canvas, 223/4" x 33". De Morgan
Foundation,
London. Photo: Courtauld Institute of Art.
EVELYN
DE
MORGAN
Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamund
(c. 1903), oil on canvas, 29" x 251/2".
De Morgan
Foundation,
London. Photo:
Bridgeman
Art Library,
London.