The Sea Maidens

Evelyn De Morgan painted 'The Sea Maidens' in 1885, depicting female figures inhabiting or emerging from the sea in the tradition of nymph and sea spirit mythology that ran through classical and Northern European folk traditions. Sea maidens — whether classical Nereids, Norse selkies, or the mermaids of British folk tradition — offered Victorian painters a vehicle for the idealised female nude in a natural outdoor context, and De Morgan's treatment approaches this subject with her characteristic combination of aesthetic beauty and spiritual seriousness. By 1885 her mature style was fully operational, and the challenge of painting figures whose element is water — simultaneously physical and fluid, present and dissolving — gave her precise, clear technique an interesting test. The De Morgan Centre's canvas is part of the dedicated collection that preserves her entire career for study.

The oil on canvas faces the specific challenge of rendering figures that exist at the boundary between body and water — flesh that is simultaneously physical and aqueous. De Morgan's characteristic clear, luminous colour and precise figure drawing are adapted to create forms that are solid enough to be beautiful but fluid enough to belong to their marine environment.