DOI Heft:
No. 86 (May, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: The art of Mrs. William de Morgan
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19784#0234
The A rt of Evelyn Dc Morgan
THE ART OF MRS. WILLIAM soon to be—a determinant factor in the formation
DE MORGAN. BY W. SHAW of her settled character as an artist. The short of
SPARROW. the matter >s that Miss Pickering's style had come
to her at first-hand, a natural expression of her
The maiden name of Mrs. William De Morgan spiritual nature. She understood the great pre-
was Evelyn Pickering, and twenty-three years have decessors of Raphael; she and they were con-
passed since that name appeared for the first time genial: "across the great gulf of time they
in the catalogue of an important exhibition of exchanged smiles and a salute." Even as
pictures. A painting in oil was hung then (1877) a child she made friends with those who were
at the Grosvenor Gallery; it had for its subject represented in the National Gallery; it was from
Ariadne in Naxos; it was close in drawing, thought- their pictures that her inborn love of art re-
fill and precise in composition ; and its style, its ceived its earliest encouragement,
general character, was Pre-Raphaelite, but not as Other aesthetic influences came soon afterwards,
yet in what may be called a Victorian manner. Its the first of these being the wise sympathy and
painter, that is to say, was not in 1877 a devoted the rich, suggestive art of her uncle, Mr.
follower of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Miss Roddam Spencer Stanhope. Then followed a
Pickering, indeed—the maiden name seems the course of academic study. It began at the Slade
right one to employ when
speaking of the artist's
early work—had in those
days barely scraped ac-
quaintance with the most
noted men of genius who
had been influenced by
the modern Pre-Raphaelite
movement. She had not
seen the pictures that
Millais painted in his first
period, nor had she a
chance of becoming
familiar with them till
they were brought once
more to public notice by
the Millais Exhibition of
1886. With Rossetti's
poetry, in 1877, Miss
Pickering was well ac-
quainted, but of his genius
in painting she knew
scarcely anything at all,
and it remained almost
unknown to her till she
visited that fine show of
Rossetti's pictures which
was held after his death.
As regards Purne-Jones,
she certainly had seen a
few of his paintings, and
had certainly been moved
by their peculiar great-
ness ; but the influence
of Burne-Jones had not
then appeared in her work
and become what it was "mater dolorosa" by evelyn de morgan
XIX. No. 86.—May, 1900. 221
THE ART OF MRS. WILLIAM soon to be—a determinant factor in the formation
DE MORGAN. BY W. SHAW of her settled character as an artist. The short of
SPARROW. the matter >s that Miss Pickering's style had come
to her at first-hand, a natural expression of her
The maiden name of Mrs. William De Morgan spiritual nature. She understood the great pre-
was Evelyn Pickering, and twenty-three years have decessors of Raphael; she and they were con-
passed since that name appeared for the first time genial: "across the great gulf of time they
in the catalogue of an important exhibition of exchanged smiles and a salute." Even as
pictures. A painting in oil was hung then (1877) a child she made friends with those who were
at the Grosvenor Gallery; it had for its subject represented in the National Gallery; it was from
Ariadne in Naxos; it was close in drawing, thought- their pictures that her inborn love of art re-
fill and precise in composition ; and its style, its ceived its earliest encouragement,
general character, was Pre-Raphaelite, but not as Other aesthetic influences came soon afterwards,
yet in what may be called a Victorian manner. Its the first of these being the wise sympathy and
painter, that is to say, was not in 1877 a devoted the rich, suggestive art of her uncle, Mr.
follower of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Miss Roddam Spencer Stanhope. Then followed a
Pickering, indeed—the maiden name seems the course of academic study. It began at the Slade
right one to employ when
speaking of the artist's
early work—had in those
days barely scraped ac-
quaintance with the most
noted men of genius who
had been influenced by
the modern Pre-Raphaelite
movement. She had not
seen the pictures that
Millais painted in his first
period, nor had she a
chance of becoming
familiar with them till
they were brought once
more to public notice by
the Millais Exhibition of
1886. With Rossetti's
poetry, in 1877, Miss
Pickering was well ac-
quainted, but of his genius
in painting she knew
scarcely anything at all,
and it remained almost
unknown to her till she
visited that fine show of
Rossetti's pictures which
was held after his death.
As regards Purne-Jones,
she certainly had seen a
few of his paintings, and
had certainly been moved
by their peculiar great-
ness ; but the influence
of Burne-Jones had not
then appeared in her work
and become what it was "mater dolorosa" by evelyn de morgan
XIX. No. 86.—May, 1900. 221