The Gilded Cage is an oil painting on canvas by the English painter Evelyn De Morgan, from 1901 to 1902: it is on loan from the De Morgan Collection to the Watts Gallery.
Description In the painting, a woman looks out of a window. Her outstretched hand forms a gesture of yearning as she watches a group of dancers and musicians. The principal figure among the travelling group is a woman who dances while holding her baby, suggesting that the scene also represents maternal duty. Broken jewellery and a book lie on the floor.
A bird soars free above the dancers, which contrasts sharply to the captive bird in the gilded cage hanging near the woman's distraught older husband.Leslie J. Morison, Painting the Gilded Cage - Evelyn de Morgan and the Plight of the Victorian Woman Artist, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1992
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