“When first the sisters had permission to rise to the surface, they were each delighted with the new and beautiful sights they saw; but now, as grown-up girls, they could go when they pleased, and they had become indifferent about it. They wished themselves back again in the water, and after a month had passed they said it was much more beautiful down below, and pleasanter to be at home.
Yet often, in the evening hours, the five sisters would twine their arms round each other, and rise to the surface, in a row. They had more beautiful voices than any human being could have; and before the approach of a storm, and when they expected a ship would be lost, they swam before the vessel, and sang sweetly of the delights to be found in the depths of the sea…” — Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid
This lovely 1886 painting titled The Sea Maidens was done by female Pre-Raphaelite artist Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919.) It was meant to depict the mermaid sisters in Andersen’s fairy tale.
Evelyn De Morgan (born Mary Evelyn Pickering) was home schooled and began her drawing lessons at the tender age of fifteen. Her work dealt mostly with mythological, biblical and literary themes. She was greatly influenced by Pre-Raph giant Edward Burne Jones. At age eighteen she enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London — although she, like many other Pre-Raph artists, objected to the formal curriculum and never finished her degree.
Evelyn married the ceramicist William De Morgan in 1887. The couple were pro-peace, pro-women activists, objecting to wars and advocating for women’s right to vote.
If the mermaids in this painting all look alike, there is a reason for it — they are all actually the same model, Jane Mary Hales. Interestingly, according to ART UK, Evelyn had a “very close and passionate relationship” with Jane. When she died, Evelyn was actually buried in between her husband, William, and Jane, at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Jane is referred to as “companion, model and muse”.
Pretty heavy stuff for a Victorian woman, eh?
Evelyn once wrote in her diary: “Art is eternal, but life is short. I will make up for it now, I have not a moment to lose.”
Histories and Mysteries 