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The Result of Her Experiment: Evelyn De Morgan's Spiritualist Message of a Hopeful Death

The late Victorian artist Evelyn De Morgan's paintings have been analyzed and interpreted through the lens of her many stylistic influences by past critics and current art historians. This thesis seeks to restore 19th-century Spiritualism as the central influence on the subject matter and style of De Morgan's paintings. This is particularly true of works concerned with the struggles of mortal life and the moment of death, based on her anonymously published text The Result of an Experiment. Victorian mourning rituals, Spiritualism, and the writings of Swedenborg served to draw out the specific Spiritualist symbols within De Morgan's paintings. A detailed analysis of six paintings concerned with the path of mortal life and death revealed De Morgan's Spiritualist beliefs about a hopeful death after her experiment with spirit communication.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BGMYU2/oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-11330
Date18 April 2024
CreatorsPaul, Mary Daylin
PublisherBYU ScholarsArchive
Source SetsBrigham Young University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
Rightshttps://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

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