Highlights in the De Morgan Collection at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village
Moonlight lustre floral jardiniere
Squat jardiniere with short straight neck. Decorated in moonlight lustre colours, with floral and leaf decoration. Decorated on the underside with con
Ferocious Lion Dish
Shallow Earthenware dish. Decorated with a ferocious lion striding across a background of pale leaves on a turquoise ground. Reverse decorated with co
Gold Lustre Chimaera vase
Gold Lustre inverted pear shaped earthenware vase. Decorated all over with winged chimeras and swirls on a cream ground.
Fighting Beasts and serpent dish
Lustre dish with two feline beasts being attacked by a winged serpent on a plain gold ground.
Study for ‘Boreas and Oreithyia’, male head looking down to left
Study of a male head for Evelyn De Morgans painting Boreas and Oreithyia. This study displays the models striking eyes and cheekbones and his expression conveys a pensiveness which contrasts with more typical violent and corporeal representations of Boreas. The models striking appearance and melancholic attitude may have affected Evelyns final composition and representation of the Greek God.
Earthbound
Walter Shaw Sparrow (1900) explained this painting as follows: In a dark and desolate country, an aged king broods over his hoard of gold, while the dark Angel of Death approaches, a cloud-like mantle floating around her. It is strewn with stars and a moon shines dimly in the angels dusky wing, al...
Sleep and Death: The Children of Night
In this painting Evelyn portrays two young boys resting against the Lady of the Night, whose cloak flies behind her in the wind. The children are allegorical representations of Sleep who rests against the lady's knee and Death who stares out of the canvas holding an extinguished torch symbolic of th...
Cadmus and Harmonia
The subject of the painting is from Ovids Metamorphoses (Book IV, 563-603). After Cadmus is changed into a serpent by Mars, his wife Harmonia begs for a similar fate, which is granted. Here we see Harmonia in the embrace of her transfigured husband. However, De Morgan deviates from Metamorphoses by...
Daughters of the Mist
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...
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