Not only was Evelyn de Morgan one of the first women to attend the Slade School, but also, according to George Frederick Watts, was way ahead of all the women, and considerably ahead of most of the men. I look upon her as the first woman-artist of the day - if not of all time (Quoted in A. M. W. Stirling, William de Morgan and his Wife, Thornton Butterworth, 1922, page 193). Disillusioned by the Slade’s teachings, which merely touched upon her technical ability, Evelyn set off for Rome in 1875. On her return to England three years later, she turned her artistic back on the ugliness of the industrial world and looked towards the clarity and purity of fifteenth century Italian art and the antiquity of Rome to create her Symbolist language. She painted with dramatic eloquence, glowing rich colours and flowing animated brushwork, particularly influenced by Burne-Jones, who became a great friend, often visiting Evelyn and her husband, the potter William de Morgan, in their villa near Florence.