Search the De Morgan Collection
The Grey Sisters
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
This painting depicts a crucial scene from Goethes Faust. God and the Devil (Mephistopheles) discuss a wager the devil says Allow me to take over the management of Fausts existence and you will lose him. God has confidence that mankind can gain salvation by its own efforts, in spite of the i…
Love’s Passing
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
This painting is an allegory for the passing of time and the life cycle. The lovers in the foreground sit listening to the piping angel, with wonderful outstretched red wings. The male figures seems entranced, but the woman is distracted. The book open before them holds the key to her distress as it…
Mercury
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
Mercury, was the messenger to the gods, the conductor of souls to the lower world and a dangerous foe. He is depicted here as a young athlete, carrying the caduceus (rod with twined snakes that possessed magical powers over sleeping, waking and dreams) and wearing winged sandals and petasus (Winged…
The Little Sea Maid
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersens The Little Mermaid (1855), which is the much loved story of the Sea Kings daughter who rescues and falls in love with a human prince. The Little Mermaid sells her voice to a Sea Witch in exchange for a human soul and physical human form. Here she is depicted so…
The Prisoner
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
A lady sits in her prison, yearning towards the light beyond the prison window. The peacock feather decoration on her precious blue dress is a symbol of immortality. Her isolation is expressed on one side by the heavy iron bars, on the other by her chained wrists. On one wrist she wears a metal sha…
The Passing of the Soul at Death
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
It may seem surprising just how many of Evelyn’s paintings are situated with water and in particular the sea in the background of the image. For Evelyn the motif of the sea encompassed a number of tropes both metaphorical and physical. Evelyn uses the device to help create a mood, for instance, be…
In Memoriam
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
In this painting a solitary female figure is seated in a mournful posture on a stone bench which is reminiscent of a funerary monument. In her hand, she holds a wreath of flowers, presumably meant for the deceased.
The painting is undated but thought to have been completed circa 1900 and was a ref…
The Sea Maidens
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
This group of five mermaids is linked to the story of the little mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. The little mermaid falls in love with a shipwrecked Prince and thus desperately wants to be human. Helped by a witch, she changes her tail into legs, but as a forfeit she loses the power of speech an…
Death of the Dragon
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
Painted towards the end of the First World War, Death of the Dragon depicts the culmination of war as a final apocalyptic confrontation between good and evil. A radiant angelic spirit descends from the heavens to defeat evil (appearing here in imagery derived from the Book of Revelations in the form…
Daughters of the Mist
Artist: De Morgan, Evelyn
These Daughters of the Mist may be connected to Hans Christian Andersens story of the Little Mermaid. She kills herself for life, but as a mermaid, does not have an immortal soul. In the story, the daughters of the air welcome the little mermaid and tell her that if she does good deeds for 300 year…
