The Passing of the Soul at Death
Artist: Evelyn de Morgan (English,1855-1919)
Date: 1910-1919
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Collection: De Morgan Foundation, London, United Kingdom
Description
In this painting executed towards the end of Evelyn’s life, the sea is used to illustrate her spiritualist belief that at the moment of death the soul's essence, or spirit, passes out of the body and into the light of the next world. The dying figure is sitting on rocks in a dark shadowy land. The flaming torch of life has fallen from her hand and will shortly be extinguished in the water. A dark shadow of a dragon representative of evil menaces the dying woman, and yet her spirit passes safely across the water, to the sunlight of the spirit world on the other side of the pool.