Study for "An Angel Piping to the Souls in Hell"

Known for her allegorical and literary paintings, De Morgan has instead chosen a simple, evocative subject for this pastel: a country girl absently chewing on a reed or bit of straw. The very image of someone lost in thought, the figure’s downcast eyes lend her a faraway expression. The artist enhances the dreamlike mood of the drawing by manipulating the application of pastel. She smudges the material in some areas and allows the lined texture of the paper to show through in others, giving the drawing a soft, slightly unfocussed quality. The full lips and flowing hair of this figure are typical of the Pre-Raphaelite image of women, though De Morgan eliminates the moralizing subtext often associated with female subjects in the work of her male counterparts.