Reviews

Evelyn De Morgan: The Gold Drawings

Leighton House, London, reviewed by Nigel Ip (Print Quarterly)

Evelyn De Morgan: The Gold Drawings is the latest free exhibition to grace the new Tavolozza Drawings Gallery at Leighton House. Few Victorian artists experimented with metallic pigments, notably Edward Burne-Jones, and only 17 gold drawings by Evelyn are known, encompassing Christian and mythological imagery inspired by the Italian Renaissance. 14 are presented here from the De Morgan Foundation and Leighton House collections. The initial group of studies for The Marriage of St Francis and Holy Poverty (1902) eloquently introduces Evelyn’s working method. Using a nude life model for the figure of St Francis, she first sketched out his movements in black and white chalks, then created a clothed version with the saint’s accoutrements. Two further sheets explore his hooded head and sandalled feet using coloured pastels.

But for the final piece – a response to Giotto’s frescoes in Assisi – every figure and surface is draped in heavenly gold pigment. Evelyn ground up these so-called ‘cakes of gold’ to create bespoke gold paint and crayons. Paired with dark grey paper, the sculptural effect mirrors Andrea Mantegna’s grisailles in the National Gallery.

Evelyn made her luxurious gold drawings as independent works of art, the most spectacular of these being Gloria in Excelsis (1893) and Victoria Dolorosa (1900). Here, black chalk has been employed in the recessed grooves of armour, drapery, and wings to further accentuate the gilt subjects’ otherworldly qualities and add extra depth to the image. The result is impeccable draughtsmanship given the Midas touch.