Flora

Evelyn De Morgan painted 'Flora' in 1894, depicting the Roman goddess of spring flowers and renewal who was also associated with blooming vegetation and the fertility of the earth. Flora belonged to the tradition of spring allegories that ran through European painting from Botticelli's 'Primavera' — where Flora appears transforming the nymph Chloris with a touch — through the nineteenth century, and De Morgan's engagement with this tradition reflects both her Florentine influence and her love of the natural world as a vehicle for spiritual meaning. The National Trust's canvas shows her mature allegorical style applied to a subject of life-affirming seasonal joy that balances the more solemn spiritual and eschatological themes that increasingly dominated her work in the 1890s. Flora offered De Morgan an opportunity to paint flowers — which she rendered with botanical precision — within an allegorical framework that elevated their beauty to cosmic significance.

The oil on canvas deploys De Morgan's characteristic rich, saturated colour in the service of a subject naturally hospitable to chromatic brilliance — flowers provide an opportunity for the full range of her jewel-bright palette. The figure is rendered with her typical precise idealisation, surrounded by blossoms that are both botanically observed and symbolically charged as emblems of spring renewal.