Study of a female head for The Love Potion 1903

Curator: This intriguing head study, realized around 1903, comes to us from Evelyn De Morgan. It is thought to be a study of a female head related to her painting "The Love Potion." It looks to be executed in pastel, coloured pencil and pencil. Editor: The materiality is immediately what strikes me! Look how soft and almost powdery the pastel feels. I am really taken by the careful rendering, like a highly skilled artisan piece produced in a Pre-Raphaelite workshop. It is clearly more than a simple sketch! Curator: Yes, De Morgan and others in the Pre-Raphaelite orbit certainly did draw upon many craft traditions. The slightly melancholic feel resonates; it suggests a certain cultural moment where longing and idealisation were highly valued. The potion connects directly to a visual symbolic language regarding intoxicating desires and fatal attractions. Editor: Interesting. I immediately see the relationship of pastel to flesh – the buildable, layerable quality of these dry media allowed for this almost sculptural representation. How interesting to link ‘potion’ with pigment, to connect materials so intrinsically to intention! What a striking choice! The choice of colours speaks volumes. Curator: Agreed. Her face embodies the typical Pre-Raphaelite subject in the state of contemplative longing. Notice how her downcast gaze meets with the almost vibrant touches of red in her hair, subtly hinting at hidden passion. It brings to mind other works referencing myth and magic, of fatal women. Editor: All of that passion delivered in such muted colours – so Victorian! The artist draws a perfect parallel of a face holding so many feelings, all subtly rendered in soft pastel – like desires, simmering under the surface. A real sense of skilled artifice there. Curator: Indeed. It reminds us how potent visual culture can be – not merely as decoration but as an activator of dreams, of shared cultural narratives concerning the heart. Editor: A brilliant illustration, showing us just how carefully chosen and arranged materials can act as powerful cultural conveyors in themselves! The means completely define the outcome.