The Gilded Cage 1919

Evelyn De Morgan made this painting, "The Gilded Cage" with oil on canvas. The red and yellow of their clothes feel so opulent, but the figures feel trapped. I can imagine De Morgan standing at her easel, brush in hand, carefully building up layers of thin paint. There’s a tension between the woman reaching for the open window, the man inside, and the bird escaping from its cage. The woman’s outstretched arm is so full of longing. What does it feel like to reach like that? De Morgan probably felt it too. The man looks away, tired. The Pre-Raphaelites were all about stories, but so is painting; each brushstroke is a little decision, a tiny narrative of its own. When you look at a painting, you’re seeing a record of someone else’s searching, their own way of seeing the world. Art is a conversation.