The Garden of Opportunity
Evelyn De Morgan, 1892
IdentityPost-1850
Overview
About This Work
The Garden of Opportunity (1892) is a monumental allegorical painting by Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919), one of the last and greatest painters of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Measuring 179 x 122 cm (oil on canvas), the work depicts two male students at a moral and existential crossroads in a fantastical garden landscape. They must choose between the path of Wisdom (represented by an austere, knowledge-bearing female figure on the right) and the path of Folly (represented by a seductive figure on the left offering worldly pleasures). The painting is a visual morality play, packed with Renaissance-inspired symbolism and deeply infused with De Morgan's spiritual and feminist convictions. Created while the artist was living in Florence, the work was not exhibited during her lifetime, yet it stands as one of her most sophisticated and psychologically rich explorations of choice, consequence, and the human soul. The painting exemplifies the later Pre-Raphaelite style: meticulous detail, jewel-like colour, spiritualist themes, and a profound commitment to using allegory as a vehicle for moral and social critique.
Visual Analysis
Composition
The Bifurcated Landscape: The painting is visually and symbolically divided into two distinct realms. The right side (Wisdom's realm) is lush, orderly, and fruitful, with distant buildings, a church spire, a waterwheel (symbolizing industry and progress), and a flourishing tree. The left side (Folly's realm) features the Palace of Folly in golden light, but this opulent vision is surrounded by a barren, desolate landscape—a visual critique of the emptiness of material excess.
The Students at the Crossroads: The two young male figures, dressed in Renaissance clothing (one in blue, one in red), stand at the moment of choice. Crucially, they have already begun to turn away from Wisdom and are striding toward the seductive offerings of Folly across a bridge.
Wisdom's Figure: On the right stands a woman in a golden gown representing Wisdom. She is associated with symbolic attributes: an owl (symbol of wisdom and learning), a book on a bench (knowledge), a cornucopia (abundance of spiritual/intellectual wealth), a fruitful tree (spiritual and intellectual growth), and the waterwheel (industry and practical progress).
Folly's Temptations: The figure of Folly is visually similar to Wisdom—also beautiful and richly dressed—yet she offers false promises: a silver ball that, when examined closely, reveals a hidden skull (memento mori—the emptiness of material pleasure), a branch of henbane (a poisonous, narcotic plant, symbolizing the intoxicating but dangerous nature of worldly excess), and the promise of immediate sensory pleasure (the Palace of Folly glitters with gold and light).
The Devil's Presence: At the far end of the bridge leading to Folly's palace, a small devil is barely visible, waiting to receive the deceived visitors.
Symbolic Details: In the bottom left corner, a white dove faces a snarling black lion. This likely represents the contrast between innocence/spiritual peace and worldly aggression/carnality. The dove is positioned nearer to Wisdom; the lion to Folly. De Morgan deliberately makes Folly and Wisdom appear strikingly similar—both are beautiful women in expensive gowns. This visual ambiguity is intentional: the painting asserts that vice and virtue can be dangerously difficult to distinguish. One must look closely to see the hidden skull in the silver ball, suggesting that discernment requires vigilance.
Colour & Light
Jewel-like Palette: Following Pre-Raphaelite principles, the colours are bright, saturated, and symbolic. Gold appears in Wisdom's robes (representing spiritual enlightenment) and in the deceptive light of Folly's palace (false promise). Blue and red in the students' clothing (primary colours, suggesting youth and vitality). Green in the vegetation of Wisdom's realm (growth, renewal, hope). Black and grey in the desolate landscape surrounding Folly's palace (emptiness, despair).
The Contrast of Light: Folly's realm is bathed in a warm, alluring glow; Wisdom's realm is more subdued, suggesting that truth is less immediately seductive than falsehood.
Materials & Technique
Oil on Canvas: De Morgan uses traditional oil on canvas, allowing for meticulous detail and luminous colour.
Renaissance Influence: The composition, figures, and setting are inspired by Italian Renaissance art (particularly Botticelli). The flat, bright landscape background echoes 15th-century Flemish and Italian painting conventions.
Pre-Raphaelite Detail: Every element—the leaves of the tree, the folds of drapery, the stones of the distant buildings—is rendered with painstaking precision, embodying the Pre-Raphaelite commitment to "truth to nature."
Historical Context
Context
De Morgan's Artistic Position: Evelyn De Morgan (born Evelyn Pickering) came of age after the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had formally disbanded. However, the movement's ideals continued to dominate Victorian art education and aesthetics. De Morgan was trained at the Slade School of Art (one of the first art schools to permit women to study from life models), where she excelled and developed her distinctive style synthesizing Pre-Raphaelitism with Renaissance influence.
Spiritualism and Theosophy: De Morgan and her husband (the ceramicist William De Morgan) were deeply involved in the Spiritualist Movement, which was fashionable among Victorian intellectuals. They participated in séances and believed in communication with the spirit world. This painting reflects Spiritualist ideas about the soul's journey, moral choice, and spiritual evolution.
Feminism and Suffrage: De Morgan was a signatory on the "Declaration in Favour of Women's Suffrage" (1889). Many of her paintings, including works like The Gilded Cage, critique the social restrictions placed on women. However, The Garden of Opportunity presents a more universal moral message—the temptation of Folly applies to both men and women, though gendered differently.
Florence Sojourn: The painting was created while De Morgan and her husband spent half of each year in Florence (1895 onwards), where she had access to Renaissance masterworks that profoundly influenced her mature style. The Renaissance setting of this allegory reflects her absorption in Italian art and culture.
Key Themes
Choice, Morality, Gender and Representation
Choice, Morality, and Consequence:
The Irreversibility of Choice: The painting captures the exact moment before the students fully commit to Folly. Yet their body language suggests they have already mentally crossed the line. They are not being dragged; they are striding forward. The painting suggests that moral choices, once begun, become difficult to reverse.
Wisdom's Sacrifice: Wisdom has relinquished worldly prestige, symbolized by a crown and necklace lying abandoned on the ground before her. She has chosen knowledge over material wealth. This reflects De Morgan's spiritualist and philosophical conviction that spiritual enlightenment requires the renunciation of worldly attachments.
The Deceptive Beauty of Vice: The visual similarity between Folly and Wisdom emphasizes that temptation wears the mask of truth. The silver ball (with its hidden skull) is a perfect visual metaphor: externally beautiful and alluring, yet containing death at its core.
Gender and Representation:
Feminine Agency in Allegory: Rather than passive allegorical figures, both Wisdom and Folly are active agents. Wisdom teaches; Folly seduces. They are not decorative but central to the moral drama.
The Male Students: The choice belongs to the male students, yet the figures guiding them are women. This inverts traditional gender hierarchies: women are positioned as teachers, tempters, and moral guides, suggesting female moral and intellectual authority.
Exam Focus Points
Critical Perspectives
The Pre-Raphaelite Tradition and Decline: The Garden of Opportunity exemplifies the Pre-Raphaelite style at its artistic height but historical decline (the 1890s). Exam essays should discuss how De Morgan was one of the few artists to sustain Pre-Raphaelite ideals into the 20th century, adapting them to Symbolism and Spiritualism.
Allegory as Feminist Strategy: Unlike male Pre-Raphaelites (who often used allegory to depict passive female beauty as ideal), De Morgan uses allegory as a vehicle for moral critique. Wisdom is not objectified; she is a teacher. This represents a feminist reclamation of allegorical form.
The Unexhibited Masterpiece: The painting was not exhibited during De Morgan's lifetime, suggesting it was either too private/personal or failed to find a patron willing to commission it. This raises questions about the market for allegorical paintings in the 1890s and the constraints placed on female artists' production.
Comparison to Male Allegorical Works: Compare this to male artists' allegorical paintings (e.g., Burne-Jones). De Morgan's allegory is more psychologically complex and morally ambiguous—the choice is genuinely difficult, not a simple binary.