The Bells of San Vito
Evelyn De Morgan (London 1855 - London 1919)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1891 (initialled and dated)
Materials
Watercolour and gouache on paper
Measurements
612 x 375 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1288982
Caption
This picture is related to what is probably the artist's most well-known 1894 painting, Flora (De Morgan Foundation). The single female figure set amongst flowers and foliage shows the influence of Botticelli - especially his celebrated pictures Primavera (Spring) and The Birth of Venus in the Uffizi, Florence as well as the Pre-raphaelite Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Like the Flora it was very probably painted in Italy. The subject is partly explained by an old, probably original, label on the reverse which reads: ‘A Bacchante came from the past into the present and revisited Bellosguardo near Florence in 1890, but was scared away by the church bells.’ (the artist's uncle J.R. Spencer Stanhope lived at the Villa Nuti, Bellosguardo).
Summary
Watercolour and gouache on paper, The Bells of San Vito by Evelyn de Morgan (London 1850 or 1855 - London 1919), signed and dated E de M, 91 EP [1891]. A female figure semi-clad in robes dancing in an italianate garden, with trees, sunflowers, a wall and steps behind, and a church on hill in background, listening next to a tree with sunflowers in foreground and bell tower in Italian landscape behind.
Provenance
Exhibited at the New Gallery in 1891 (246); given by Mrs Phyllis Pilkington to the National Trust (at Lanhydrock) and transferred to Wightwick Manor in January 1998
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: E de M, 91 EP (signed and dated) Verso: New Gallery Summer Exhibition 1891 No. 246 (label on reverse)
Makers and roles
Evelyn De Morgan (London 1855 - London 1919), artist