De Morgan Foundation

Homecoming: The De Morgan Collection Returns to Chelsea

Hosted by: The De Morgan Foundation

Exhibition:

This exhibition has already taken place

What's On / Past exhibitions / Homecoming: The De Morgan Collection Returns to Chelsea

Past Exhibition Information

Dec. 3, 2020 - Dec. 6, 2020

Gallery 8

The De Morgan Foundation

Lustrous ceramics and beautiful, jewel-like canvases by William and Evelyn De Morgan are presented by the De Morgan Foundation in this breathtaking exhibition.

He was a potter who established his business on Cheyne Row and went on to be the premier ceramic designer of the Victorian arts and crafts movement. She was so much more than a Pre-Raphaelite artist, who painted feminist, pacifist, and spiritualist canvases disguised as beautiful aesthetic paintings, from her studio at 17a Edith Grove.

For the first time in a century, the De Morgan Foundation brings its collection of husband and wife artistic duo William and Evelyn De Morgan back home to Chelsea to celebrate its latest partnership with Cromwell Place. Loans include the beautiful Night and Sleep (1878) by Evelyn De Morgan, WIlliam De Morgan's charming Parrot Tile Panels (1888 - 1904), a leaflet celebrating the Blue Plaque on the De Morgans home at 127 Old Church Street, and an exhibition catalogue of Evelyn De Morgan's 1916 exhibition at her studio.

Pictured from left to right:

Evelyn De Morgan, The Soul's Prison House, (1880 - 1888)

Evelyn De Morgan, Night and Sleep, (1878)

Evelyn De Morgan, Lux in Tenebris, (1895)

William De Morgan, Scarlet Macaw and Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot Tile Panel, (1888 - 1897)

William De Morgan, Ferocious Creatures Vase, (1882 - 1888)

This Cromwell Place exhibition has already taken place

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About the Hosts

The De Morgan Foundation

William and Evelyn De Morgan were artists who believed that their artwork could make the world a better, more beautiful place. They were married in 1887, entering into an equal partnership in which each supported the other in artistic endeavours. Evelyn De Morgan (1855 - 1919) painted stunning canvases, inspired by the Aesthetic movement, and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which promoted her feminist, spiritualist, and pacifist agendas. She was a true professional whose commercial success kept the couple, and enabled William De Morgan (1839 - 1917) to maintain his pottery business. William's unique ceramics were handmade in Chelsea, Merton Abbey, and Fulham by a small team of dedicated staff, upholding William Morris's Arts and Crafts Movement ideals that objects should be both beautiful and useful.

Upon the deaths of the artists, Evelyn's Younger sister Wilhelmina Stirling began collecting as much of the De Morgan's artwork as she could, believing in the power of their art to transform and uplift the lives of others with its beauty. She left her collection in trust upon her death, and the De Morgan Foundation was registered as an independent charity in 1967.

Today, The aims of the charity are as follows:

To care for the De Morgan Collection and provide public access to it
To provide information about and interpretation of the Collection on many levels, and to promote the appreciation of art and education in art and allied subjects
The Foundation offers the widest possible access to the Collection to the public via strategic partnerships with complementary organisations across the country, through a series of loans and temporary exhibitions.

It also provides an online, searchable database of the collection and images of the artworks themselves, as well as information about the collection and the life and work of the De Morgans.

The Foundation also runs educational programmes, activities, talks and events, to encourage exploration, understanding, appreciation of and insight into the Collection.

Homecoming: The De Morgan Collection Returns to Chelsea

This exhibition has already taken place

Past Exhibition Information

Lustrous ceramics and beautiful, jewel-like canvases by William and Evelyn De Morgan are presented by the De Morgan Foundation in this breathtaking exhibition.

This Cromwell Place exhibition has already taken place

About the Hosts

The De Morgan Foundation

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