About this work
A Christian knight, about to depart for battle, kneels in a church and prays to the Blessed Virgin Mary — Our Lady of Peace. The vertical canvas draws the eye upward from the armoured, genuflecting figure below to the luminous apparition above: the Blessed Virgin Mary surrounded by celestial rainbows and bedecked in laurel wreaths , attended by a host of cherubic angels.
She exudes an aura of serenity and divine grace, her hands gently raised, symbolising peace and blessing. Yet the painting resists easy comfort: De Morgan's use of traditional Christian iconography and chivalric imagery is subverted by the look of nervous consternation on the face of the young knight, who seems to be praying not only for protection but also in the idealistic hope that his actions will bring peace. The palette moves between the warm, burnished tones of armour and stone and the cool, ethereal blues and iridescent arcs of the celestial vision — a chromatic tension that mirrors the painting's moral one.
This painting is a direct response to the Boer War , completed in 1902 as that conflict ground towards its close. Roman Catholic veneration of Our Lady of Peace focuses on her roles as mediatrix, protector from dangers, and advocate of sinners — and during both the Boer and First World Wars, there was widespread use of Christian and Marian imagery to make sense of the disasters of war. De Morgan — a committed pacifist and signatory of the Declaration in Favour of Women's Suffrage — was not content to use that imagery uncritically. The knight's troubled expression quietly indicts the very chivalric mythology it inhabits, asking whether any war can truly be waged in the name of peace.
This is a painting that rewards a quiet room and a thoughtful eye. Its tall, narrow format and cool celestial light suit a hallway, a study, or a reading corner — anywhere that invites a moment's pause rather than a glance. It speaks to viewers drawn to work that carries moral weight without being didactic: the intersection of faith, doubt, beauty, and conscience held in a single, still image. For those who love the Pre-Raphaelite tradition but want something less decorative and more searching, *Our Lady of Peace* is a rare find.
