Evelyn De Morgan 1855-1919

Evelyn de Morgan was one of the women painters who painted in Pre Raphaelite style….  She was younger than the original members of the Brotherhood- she was born in London in 1855. Her parents were middle class, and her birth name was Evelyn Pickering.  She received a good education for a woman..similar to that of her brother.  She  studied the classics and she was independent minded, supporting women’s suffrage and in later life, she was a pacifist.

In 1883 she met William De Morgan, who was a ceramics artist.  They married in 1887…  For many years they spent part of their time in Florence, and part of it in London.  Evelyn was a talented painter and she also contributed financially to her husband’s ceramics business and helped him with designs for the pottery…

As a young girl, she was reluctant to take part in social rituals which she considered time wasting and hated the socialising that was expected of middle and upper class women.  She was passionate about her arts and managed to get herself sent to the Slade School of Art in the early 1870s.  She was one of the first women students. She studied under the artist George Watts and developed friendships with the Pre Raphaelite artists like Holman Hunt.   As she matured she developed her own style, and her themes tended to be feminine and delicate…She represented beautiful women of mythology and history, in classical brightly coloured robes…

Many of her works were of women figures from classical history and literature.  Another famous one was of Queen Eleanor confronting her husband’s mistress, the Fair Rosamond..