The Gilded Cage

Infobox Painting


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title= The Gilded Cage
artist= Evelyn De Morgan
year= 1919
type=Oil on canvas
height= 78.5
width= 105
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city= London
museum= De Morgan Centre

"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 ideasFact|date=February 2007. De Morgan includes art in her condemnation, as the books on the husband's desk are clearly labeled, "Poetry," "Music," and "Art."