Evelyn De
Morgan (Pickering)

Evelyn de morgan (Mary Evelyn Pickering De Morgan, August 30, 1855 - May 2, 1919) - English innovative artist, follower of the Pre-Raphaelites, wife of the famous ceramist William de Morgan (friend William Morris), the niece of the pre-Raphaelite artist John Spencer Stanhope.

Features of the artist Evelyn de Morgan: A feminist, pacifist and spiritualist, Evelyn de Morgan was a successful artist who challenged male chauvinism and class prejudice. Despite the obvious influence of his uncle, the pre-Raphaelite artist John Spencer Stanhope, she managed to create an original pictorial world, in the center of which she placed women's images.
Mysticism, allegories, spiritualism - the artist's obvious passions. The style is also noted: a kind of plastic, proportions of figures, clearly defined lines of clothes, carefully draped colors, colors with a prevalence of complex crimson, maroon and pink tones - all this makes her work recognizable. During her creative career, Evelyn de Morgan created more than 50 paintings.

Famous paintings by artist Evelyn de Morgan: "The Triumph of Aurora", "Elena Troyanskaya", "Flora", "Portrait of Jane Bearden Morris", "Night and sleep".

Evelyn studied at home, like many representatives of the middle class, and from the age of 15 she began taking drawing lessons. She then studied at the South Kensington National School of Art, and at 18 was one of the first women to enter the Slade Art School, where her teacher was Sir Edward Poynter. Evelyn often received prizes at competitions and early began to exhibit in the London galleries of Dudley and Grosvenor, who favored women artists. Perhaps her early success was also aided by a gender-neutral last name.

After graduating from Slade School, Evelyn Pickering went to Florence to visit her uncle, Pre-Raphaelite artist John Spencer Stanhope. After this trip, Evelyn's paintings acquired a new sound, the artist began to use bright colors, allegories, and almost always portrayed female images. Her favorite model was the nanny of her sister, Jane Hales, who became the prototype for most of the female figures in Evelyn's paintings - strong, athletic and strong.

In 1887, Evelyn Pickering married a ceramic artist William de Morgan, a close friend of the famous designer William Morris. Under the influence of her husband's mother, the famous spiritualist Sofia de Morgan, the couple became fascinated with fashionable trance automatic writing at that time and in 1909 released a collection of transcripts, "Experimental Results." Allegorical echoes of this book, interest in spiritualism, references to the problems of spiritual blindness and the struggle for enlightenment are heard in many of the artist’s paintings.

De Morgans lived all their lives in London, moreover, very modestly; The money from the sale of Evelyn's paintings went to her husband's research in the field of pottery technology (at the end of his life, William de Morgan left ceramics and became famous as a writer). The President of the Royal Academy and Evelyn's teacher, Sir Edward Poynter, considered the couple as "two of the rarest souls of their time." Spouses participated in the suffrage movement: Evelyn signed the “Declaration in favor of women's suffrage” in 1889, and William showed his support by acting as vice-president of the Women's League for the Electoral Right of Women in 1913 The horrors of the Boer War and the tragedy of the First World Pacifist Evelyn de Morgan took to heart and expressed her attitude to these tragedies of humanity in the “military series” of 15 paintings. Evelyn de Morgan died two years after her husband’s death on May 2, 1919.