Image source: artvee.com
Introduction
Evelyn De Morgan’s Boreas and the Fallen Leaves (1910) is a striking allegorical painting that captures the moment when the north wind incarnate, Boreas, sweeps autumn’s leaves from their arboreal anchor and flings them through the air. Executed in oil on canvas with De Morgan’s characteristic blend of Pre‑Raphaelite detail and Symbolist atmosphere, the work measures over six feet wide, immersing viewers in a whirlwind of movement and color. On the left, a powerful, half‑man, half‑tree figure—Boreas—strains against gnarled branches as he exhales gusts of wind that animate the entire scene. To the right and foreground, naked nymphs tumble and dance amid swirling leaves, their bodies folding, rising, and falling in response to Boreas’s breath. Through masterful composition, luminous color, and intricate symbolism, Boreas and the Fallen Leaves explores themes of transformation, the cycle of life and death, and the elemental forces that shape human experience.
Historical and Cultural Context
Painted in 1910, Boreas and the Fallen Leaves appears at the tail end of Evelyn De Morgan’s career, when she had fully integrated her Pre‑Raphaelite roots with a more mature Symbolist vision. The early twentieth century was a time of both uncertainty and innovation: industrialization, scientific discovery, and shifting social orders prompted artists to revisit mythic subjects as a way to address universal concerns. De Morgan, a committed Theosophist and advocate for progressive social causes, often used classical myths to probe spiritual truths and moral questions. In Boreas and the Fallen Leaves, the ancient Greek wind god becomes a vehicle for examining the inevitability of change, the tension between vitality and decay, and the interplay of human vulnerability with elemental power.
Literary and Mythological Sources
De Morgan’s image of Boreas draws directly on Greek mythology, where Boreas is one of the four Anemoi—the personifications of the cardinal winds. Ancient poets such as Hesiod and Ovid described Boreas as a fearsome, winged deity who ruled the cold north wind and brought winter’s chill. Classical vase paintings often depict him as a bearded man with billowing drapery. De Morgan, however, transforms Boreas into a striking fusion of man and oak tree, emphasizing his primal connection to nature’s cycles.
The tumbling nymphs recall the Naiads and Dryads of Greek myth—water and tree spirits who dance at the transition between seasons. Although De Morgan does not reference a specific poem, her painting resonates with Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where mortals and deities undergo transformations and elemental forces assert their power over human life. By situating Boreas at the moment of autumn’s turning, De Morgan engages with literary themes of metamorphosis, loss, and the annual cycle of death and rebirth.
Composition and Movement
Boreas and the Fallen Leaves unfolds on a horizontal canvas that accentuates the lateral sweep of wind and the cascading motion of leaves and bodies. On the left, Boreas’s massive torso emerges from a knotted network of branches that extend across the pictorial field like a gnarled arch. His outstretched arms grip the limbs of the tree, rooting him to the earth even as his head is thrown back in the effort of exhalation. From his pursed lips, pale blue currents of wind unfurl in a sinuous ribbon that picks up leaves and spirits alike.
In the center and right, De Morgan arranges the fallen nymphs in three overlapping bands of motion. At the bottom foreground, three figures lie prostrate, their forms echoing the shapes of scattered leaves. Above them, a trio of dancing nymphs strides upward, lifted by the wind, as though moving through an invisible carousel. Behind these, a final reclining figure rests against the rocky ground, partially concealed by swirling leaves. This multi‑layered staging creates a rhythmic ebb and flow: from grounded repose to animated ascent and back again, mirroring the circular patterns of autumn winds.
Color and Atmospheric Effects
De Morgan’s palette for Boreas and the Fallen Leaves marries autumnal warmth with the cool breath of wind. The nymphs’ flesh is painted in soft creams and pale rose, their bodies luminescent against the russet and ochre foliage. Leaves range from deep crimson and burnt sienna to golden yellow, evoking the full spectrum of autumn turnover. Boreas’s bark‑like torso, by contrast, is rendered in earthy umbers and mossy greens, visually anchoring him to the arboreal realm.
The wind itself is implied through subtle veils of bluish white glaze, diffused across the canvas to suggest movement and chill. In the background, pale bands of sky—pale cyan streaked with misty gray—enhance the sense of a brisk, overcast day. De Morgan’s careful balancing of warm and cool hues underscores the painting’s thematic tension: life’s vibrant color is propelled by the cold breath of mortality’s approach.
Iconography and Symbolism
De Morgan infuses Boreas and the Fallen Leaves with layered symbolism that enriches its mythic narrative. Boreas’s body, half‑man and half‑tree, symbolizes the inseparable bond between humanity and nature. The gnarled bark of his torso underscores his enduring strength, while his muscular arms evoke the raw force of elemental wind.
The fallen leaves, curling and drifting through the composition, signify decay and transformation—autumn’s slow removal of summer’s glory in preparation for winter’s dormancy and spring’s eventual rebirth. The nymphs themselves become embodiments of transient beauty; their hair and limbs entwined with leaves suggest that they, too, are subject to nature’s cycles.
De Morgan also includes subtle Christian echoes: the entwined branches behind Boreas form a rough cross‑like shape, hinting at themes of suffering and redemption. While the painting remains firmly rooted in pagan myth, these allusions connect autumn’s death‑in‑the‑leaf with broader Christian ideas of resurrection.
Technique and Painterly Execution
Evelyn De Morgan’s Boreas and the Fallen Leaves showcases her remarkable technical command of oil painting. Her underdrawing—likely executed in charcoal—establishes the composition’s precise outlines and the anatomical accuracy of the nymphs’ bodies. Over this, she applies multiple thin glazes of oil paint, allowing underlying layers to shimmer through and produce a subtle iridescence in flesh tones and leaf surfaces.
Her brushwork varies according to subject: the wind currents are rendered with soft, feathery strokes that blend seamlessly into background glazes, while leaf edges receive crisp, pointed strokes to define their individual forms. Boreas’s tree‑trunk torso employs a combination of impasto for tactile bark texture and delicate scumbling to suggest moss and lichen. The painting’s overall finish—smooth yet alive with micro‑textures—reveals De Morgan’s meticulous attention to detail and her ability to unify diverse elements into a cohesive visual field.
Emotional Resonance and Psychological Depth
Beyond its mythic drama, Boreas and the Fallen Leaves resonates on an emotional level. Boreas’s visage—brow furrowed, cheeks puffed, eyes wide—conveys the raw exertion of elemental force. Yet there is also a hint of sorrow in his expression, as though he mourns the leaves he must strip from the branches. This emotional complexity humanizes the wind god, transforming him from an abstract force into a sympathetic figure bound by duty.
The nymphs’ varied postures and expressions capture a range of responses to autumn’s breath: resignation in the prone figures, joyful abandon in those caught dancing, and wearied repose in the reclined form at right. Through these contrasts, De Morgan evokes a spectrum of human attitudes toward change: some fear it, some embrace it, some surrender to it, and some wait in stillness for its passage. The painting thus becomes a mirror for viewers’ own experiences of life’s inevitable transformations.
Feminist and Theosophical Readings
Boreas and the Fallen Leaves can be read through a feminist lens as a meditation on the female body’s vulnerability to external forces. The nymphs—classical symbols of natural vitality—are portrayed as delicate yet resilient, moving through the wind’s dictates while retaining their innate grace. De Morgan, an early advocate for women’s autonomy, may be suggesting that female strength lies in adaptability and unity with nature rather than in dominion over it.
From a Theosophical perspective, the painting reflects the idea of cyclical renewal and the hidden harmonies of the cosmos. Boreas, though fierce, serves a necessary function within a larger cosmic order, just as the shedding of leaves paves the way for future growth. De Morgan’s interest in esoteric spirituality informs the painting’s underlying message: that apparent destruction is but a prelude to regeneration.
Reception and Influence
When Boreas and the Fallen Leaves was exhibited in 1910, it received praise for its sweeping composition and vivid mythic imagery. Critics admired De Morgan’s ability to animate the ancient wind god and to render the nude figure with both classical restraint and emotional depth. In the decades that followed, the painting became one of her signature works, frequently cited in retrospectives on women artists of the Pre‑Raphaelite and Symbolist movements.
In recent years, Boreas and the Fallen Leaves has re‑emerged as a touchstone for contemporary artists exploring themes of climate change, seasonal cycles, and the human relationship to elemental forces. Its depiction of bodies swept up in winds of transformation resonates powerfully in an age of environmental upheaval, reaffirming De Morgan’s painting as both a historical treasure and a living work of ecological and emotional relevance.
Conclusion
Evelyn De Morgan’s Boreas and the Fallen Leaves stands as a masterwork of mythic allegory and painterly virtuosity. Through its dynamic composition, rich color palette, and intricate symbolism, the painting invites viewers to confront the inevitability of change, the interplay of destruction and renewal, and the complex interdependence of humanity and nature. Boreas’s fierce exertion and the nymphs’ varied responses encapsulate the emotional journey through autumn’s breath—fear, surrender, resistance, and acceptance. Over a century since its creation, Boreas and the Fallen Leaves continues to captivate audiences, offering timeless insights into life’s transformations and the elemental forces that shape our shared destiny.