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Evelyn De Morgan

Evelyn De Morgan (30 August 1855–2 May 1919) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter.

She was born Evelyn Pickering. Her parents were of upper middle class. Her father was Percival Pickering QC, the Recorder of Pontefract. Her mother was Anna Maria Wilhelmina Spencer Stanhope, the sister of the artist John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and a descendant of Coke of Norfolk who was an Earl of Leicester.

Evelyn was homeschooled and started drawing lessons when she was 15. On the morning of her seventeenth birthday, Evelyn recorded 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 went on to persuade her parents to let her go to art school. At first they discouraged it, but in 1873 she was enrolled at the Slade School of Art. Her uncle, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, was a great influence to her works. Evelyn often visited him in Florence where he lived. This also enabled her to study the great artists of the Renaissance; she was particularly fond of the works of Botticelli. This influenced her to move away from the classical subjects favoured by the Slade school and to make her own style.

In 1887, she married the ceramicist William De Morgan. They lived together in London until he died in 1917. She died two years later on 2 May 1919 in London and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey.

Works

Evelyn and William De Morgan

• Tobias and the Angel (1875)
• Cadmus and Harmonia (1877), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Ariadne at Naxos (1877), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Night & Sleep (1878)
• Goddess of Blossoms & Flowers (1880)
• The Grey Sisters (1880-81), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Phosphorus and Hesperus (1882), De Morgan Centre, London.
• By the Waters of Babylon (1882-83), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Sleep and Death, the Children of the Night (1883), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Salutation or The Visitation (1883),
• Love's Passing (1883-1884), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Dryad (1884-85), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Luna (1885), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Sea Maidens (1885-86), De Morgan Centre, London.

Helen of Troy

Cassandra

• Hope in a Prison of Despair (1887)
• The Soul's Prison House (1888), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Love, the Misleader (1889), private collection.
• Medea (1889), Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead.
• Angel of Death (1890), private collection.
• The Garden of Opportunity (1892), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Life and Thought Emerging from the Tomb (1893), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
• Flora (1894), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Eos (1895), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Lux in Tenebris (1895), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Boreas and Oreithyia (1896), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Earthbound (1897), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Angel of Death (1897), private collection.
• Helen of Troy (1898)
• Cassandra (1898), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Valley of Shadows (1899), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Storm Spirits (1900), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Poor Man who Saved the City (1901), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Love Potion (1903)
• The Cadence of Autumn (1905), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Queen Eleanor & Fair Rosamund (1905), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Death of a Butterfly (c.1905-10), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Demeter Mourning for Persephone (1906), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Port after Stormy Seas (1905), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Hour-Glass (1905), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Prisoner (1907), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Our Lady of Peace (1907), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Worship of Mammon (1909), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Death of the Dragon (1914), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Vision (1914), private collection.
• The Red Cross (1918), De Morgan Centre, London.
• The Gilded Cage (1919), De Morgan Centre, London.
• Undiscovered Country
• Deianera (unknown)
• The Kingdom of Heaven Suffereth Violence

External links

• "Evelyn De Morgan" at The Bridgeman Art Library
• De Morgan Foundation
• Grave of Evelyn and William De Morgan
• Phryne's list of pictures in accessible collections in the UK