| Object Number: | D_EDM_0236 | |
| Date: | 1905 | |
| Category: | Canvas, Drawings, Paper, and Pastel | |
| Material: | Paper | |
| Inscriptions: | Label back of stretcher: Mrs Stirling ? Portrait of Mrs William Morris by Evelyn Pickering. Compare with a family portrait 'The Hour Glass'. 'Mrs William Morris'. 'Evelyn De Morgan' |
Study of Jane Morris. Pastel on paper, laid down on canvas. Head and shoulders study of Jane Morris (1839-1914) in old age, facing frontally, her head resting on a blue cushion and inclined slightly to left and looking down, wearing a dress with round necked collar and a fine white shawl. This is a recognisable portrait study of Jane Morris drawn in her later life. As well as being a portrait, the pastel is also a study for the large allegorical painting ‘The Hour Glass’ (1904-5) although in the final oil painting the figure is transformed from a representative likeness into a stylised anonymous figure. According to Mrs Stirling, the artist’s sister, “Mrs De Morgan painted Mrs Morris twice, once in a fancy portrait entitled The Hour Glass and once as an ordinary British Matron in everyday clothes”, the present study. Jane Morris had been a friend of the De Morgans for many years, and at this period they were among her closest surviving friends.