| Object Number: | D_EDM_0240 | |
| Date: | - | |
| Category: | Drawings, Paper, and Pastel | |
| Material: | Paper |
This is a compositional study for a painting which was destroyed in a fire in 1991. The painting is one of a series which Evelyn painted in response to war. Though the scene in ‘The Coming of Peace’ is one of horror and destruction, it indicates the beginning of an end to the conflict. Here a figure, crowned with a laurel wreath, carrying an olive branch, and enclosed within a rainbow aureole, stands at the edge of an abyss where she beholds pair of beseeching bloody hands. This white-clad figure, when contrasted with that in her painting ‘S.O.S.’, is a saviour not a victim. Behind her lie the devastated ruins of civilisation, indicating that she cannot be triumphant in her victory. Again De Morgans attitude is clearly pacifist and devoid of traces of jingoism or false patriotism.