Esme Wright considers Evelyn De Morgan’s unorthodox use of form and space.

To exist as a female artist in Victorian England was to work against the grain, not merely of societal expectation, but also of what was thought to be morally appropriate. To visit a gallery alone, receive admission into art school or to exhibit a painting more arresting than a still life was the domain of the man. For a woman to partake in such things was unexpected, even transgressive.

However, The Victorian Era was in many ways a time of new possibilities. The acceleration of scientific and mathematical discovery required a continual re-evaluation of the traditional order of things. The previously inconceivable was made possible through invention. Meanwhile the birth of evolutionary theory threatened to overturn a system of belief which seemed to justify a “natural” social hierarchy. Amidst such a climate, the dynamic paintings of Evelyn De Morgan come alive with visual cues sensitive to these shifting social sands. To spend time with her paintings is to be drawn in by the boldness of her distinctive palette, but even more captivatingly, her nuanced manipulation of space and dimension.

An expectation of logical space is reimagined within De Morgan’s paintings of figures in flight. We are disoriented before we adjust to dimensional laws which are her own. In Evening Star Over the Sea (1910-1914) a woman is suspended in “mid-air,” held within dusty concentric circles of sandy yellows, oranges and purples. Here and there these rings overlay her robe-encased body, suggesting their immateriality in contrast with her own physicality. She is the tangible matter, and her well-defined form expands outwards, her limbs, although supple in their curving postures appear decidedly solid. At first glance, the painting reveals a floating woman amidst an orb of light, yet the closer we look, the more perplexing it becomes. Suddenly the space alters, the “orb” is flattened in contrast to the fleshiness of the woman’s body, which, rather than appearing in suspension, seems to be lying flat upon the circle. We readjust to a space in which we are looking down at her from above.

This same effect reappears in Boreas and Oreithyia (1896), two figures here are bent and overlaid, in such a way that they could be lying entwined, rather than embracing through upward movement. From the viewer’s singular vantage-point, two interpretations unfold, both of which have been carefully crafted by De Morgan. She uses her artistry to conjure her own space in which she subverts expectation and challenges convention. The subtle challenge of her paintings invites us to imagine new dimensions, to see what we have already seen before in a new way, from a new perspective. It is a subtle and effective articulation of her autonomy which encapsulates her entire career. De Morgan continually distinguishes herself within an artworld designed by men: her enrolment in art school, the prolificacy of her artmaking even after marriage, and most poignantly the way she composes her paintings culminate to construct a space within the artworld which is entirely her own.

Works by Evelyn De Morgan can be seen in our permanent exhibition De Morgan: Decoration or Devotion.