The Gilded Cage
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Gilded Cage is an oil painting by Evelyn De Morgan, her final work before her death in 1919. It is essentially an allegory for female captivity.
In this painting, a woman looks out a window with her hand stretched out and up in a gesture of yearning. She is looking at a group of gypsy figures, dancing under the open sky. The principal figure among the gypsy group is a woman who dances while holding her baby close to her, thus suggesting an alternative vision of maternal duty.
Soaring free about the dancing group is a bird, which contrasts sharply to the captive bird in the gilded cage that hangs beside the woman's older husband. The husband seems oblivious to his wife's state of mind.
On the floor and disregarded is jewelry and an open book, which signifies her rejection of tradition, convention, and old ideas. De Morgan includes art in her condemnation, as the books on the husband's desk are clearly labeled, "Poetry," "Music," and "Art."
