The Museums Journal  
Review May 2002
Lustre for life
Peter Lewis is captivated by the arts and crafts movement at the De Morgan Center, London
 
Being of a naturally lugubrious temperament, I rarely write rave reviews. But I must insist that anyone who has any interest in the evolution of art galleries and museums should lose no time in visiting Wandsworth and seeking out the De Morgan Centre. There, in a small space, is a fine and fascinating example of how to marry artwork with a theatrically architectural space. The effect is wonderful.

The works on display are those of William De Morgan, undoubtediy the foremost ceramic artist of the arts and craft movement in Britain, together with paintings and drawings by his wife Evelyn.

Some Pre-Raphaelite images are burned into my earliest memories. Sixty years ago on the obligatory Saturday visit to my maternal grandmother in London's East End, I would,
as a reward for good behaviour, be allowed to view the only book in the house, a compendium of Pre- Raphaelite prints. Blessed damozels, belie dames and beggar maids competed for my attention. At the time I thought the pictures were soppy and sentimental. What excited my senses were the rich endpapers and the designs for pots and tiles that decorated the title pages.
 
Until now I never knew the source of those designs nor have I been able to view the real thing. De Morgan recreated the bright colours of 16th-century Islamic pottery, especially an intense turquoise. Even more remarkably, he rediscovered the art of polychrome lustre in copper red, gold and silver. His tiles decorated the houses of the rich, P&O liners and the Czar of Russia's yacht. The surviving ceramics are so beautiful they make your teeth ache.

If we still covet the decorative pattern-making of the arts and craft movement, the decades have not been as kind to the paintings of Evelyn De Morgan. The pictures have a gloss and over-meticulous finish that covers any creative passion, though her drawings show her to have been a talent for draughtsmanship without contemporary compare. The artist George Frederick Watts regarded her as 'the first woman artist of the day - if not of all time'.

’Her pictures are sometimes heavily religiose, at other times whimsically allegorical Three naked girls represent Moonbeams dipping into the Sea, five similarly decorative girls with fishy tails are the Sea Maidens. Later, her paintings show women in oppressed social
roles. The Soul's Prison House, the Prisoner, the Captives and the Gilded Cage, in which a young wife with an older husband mourns her lost freedom, are typical subjects. Her own marriage to the older William appears to have been a happy one. They supported each other's work and shared a wide range of causes including women's suffrage, pacifism and spiritualism. The extensive archives of the centre are a rich source of study for art and social historians.
 
The centre has been constructed in what was the reference room in West Hill Library, which dates from 1887. The gallery must have presented a challenge to the designers. The long narrow room has one low entrance, a high vaulted ceiling, pilastered walls and a curved glass apse at the other end.

The trustees and designers have resisted the temptation to reproduce 19th- century showcases but have used brushed metal and glass in so refined a manner that attention is focused totally on the ceramics and the pictures. There are no explanatory labels or historical information boards. The works of William and Evelyn are displayed together. The effect is natural and domestic.
 
I could have stayed all day, both in the main gallery and the temporary exhibition area. The displays have an exuberance and wit that is lacking in many major galleries. The humour of William's animal tiles, antelopes, rabbits, winking owls and the ubiquitous dodo, is delightful.

The centre is well worth a visit... it remains a joy that should not be missed.

Peter Lewis is a writer and former director of Beamish Museum
Review published with the kind permission of the Museums Journal