Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"

A prize-winning student at the South Kensington and Slade Schools, Evelyn De Morgan (née Pickering) visited Italy in 1875, then exhibited at London’s Dudley Gallery in 1876, and the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. Acclaimed by contemporary critics, she married William De Morgan in 1887 then used money earned by selling her paintings to help sustain her husband's business--an influential and experimental potter, he was closely associated with Morris & Co. Influenced by late Pre-Raphaelitism, Evelyn's work connects to contemporaries such as Edward Burne-Jones and Frederic, Lord Leighton. Like them, she made detailed drawings to prepare paintings and the arms on this sheet relate to a young woman tossing leaves in "The Cadence of Autumn" (1902, De Morgan Foundation, London). The latter work arranges young women as an elegant frieze and connects the turning seasons to human mortality, adding notes of redemptive hope (both De Morgans were ardent spiritualists).

Credit: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2018