Evelyn De Morgan

Evelyn De Morgan (30 August 1855 – 2 May 1919) was an English painter associated early in her career with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, and working in a range of styles including Aestheticism and Symbolism. Her paintings are figural, foregrounding the female body through the use of spiritual, mythological, and allegorical themes. They rely on a range of metaphors (such as light and darkness, transformation, and bondage) to express what several scholars have identified as spiritualist and feminist content. Her later works also dealt with the themes of war from a pacifist perspective, engaging with conflicts such as the Second Boer War and World War I. Rowland Neville Umfreville (1861–1931) and Anna Wilhelmina Stirling (1865–1965) who became a writer.

De Morgan was educated at home; according to her sister and biographer Anna Wilhelmina Stirling, their mother insisted that "from the first Evelyn [was to] profi from the same instruction as her brother." She studied Greek, Latin, French, German, and Italian, as well as classical literature and mythology, and was also exposed at a young age to history books and scientific texts. The introduction to this book describes the couple as practicing automatic writing together every night for many years of their marriage. Since precious little primary material in Evelyn De Morgan’s own hand has survived, this text provides important information about her faith and her approach to a range of issues—from her understanding of ultimate reality to her belief about the role of art in capturing spirit. From the moment that de Morgan encountered spiritualism, her perspective seemed to change, and her works started to reflect more ideas about darkness and death. De Morgan used a range of motifs to represent spiritual ideas. A few examples are Renaissance angels, heavenly auras, a distinctive contrast between light and dark, and the symbolic use of colours. De Morgan used complex allegories to depict her social commentary and spiritual beliefs. The iconography in these works reflect several spiritual themes such as the progress of the spirit, the materialism of life on earth, and the imprisonment of the soul in the earthly body. The headstone depicts "an angel with outstretched arms, pleading with a female figure of Death, with inverted torch, who turns her back". Their tombstone bears an inscription from The Result of an Experiment: “Sorrow is only of the flesh / The life of the spirit is joy”.

Career

De Morgan started drawing lessons when she was 15, and from the outset was dedicated to her craft. On the morning of her seventeenth 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." She was also friendly with other key figures in the Victorian literary and artistic world, like writer Vernon Lee. A retrospective Evelyn De Morgan: The Modern Painter in Victorian London ran from April 2025 – 4 January 2026 at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London. Several of De Morgan's works were included in the Clark Art Institute’s 2025 exhibit A Room of Her Own: Women Artists-Activists in Britain, 1875-1945.

Collections Her works are held in the De Morgan Collection, the De Morgan Museum at Cannon Hall, Barnsley, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the National Trust properties of Wightwick Manor and Knightshayes Court, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Southwark Art Collection.

Works

Gallery