Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"

Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"

Evelyn De Morgan

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Influenced by late-Pre-Raphaelitism, and contemporaries such as Edward Burne-Jones and Frederic Leighton, De Morgan made detailed drawings as she prepared paintings. This study relates to "The Cadence of Autumn" (1902; De Morgan Foundation, London) which uses young women in an elegant frieze-like arrangement to connect seasonal rhythms to human mortality—with notes of redemptive hope reflecting the artist’s personal belief in spiritualism. Early in her career, Evelyn (née Pickering) won prizes at the South Kensington and Slade Schools, visited Italy, and then won critical acclaim for works shown at London’s Dudley Gallery and Grosvenor Gallery in 1876–77. She married the influential and experimental potter William De Morgan in 1887, then used money earned from her art to help sustain her husband's business.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"Study of Arms for "The Cadence of Autumn"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.