Women Artists’ Diaries

Chapter 4 considers the diaries of Mary Watts and Evelyn De Morgan in conjunction and in relation to their emerging political positions. It includes an analysis of the author’s transcriptions of Mary’s diaries and of Evelyn’s diary, bringing to light previously unseen archival material in order to assist the recovery and revival of women’s marginalised life writing. A reading of Mary’s multiple, detailed diaries informs a reading of Evelyn’s relatively short, single diary, and the significance of the latter is highlighted through comparison with the former. The author aims to show how these women artists’ narratives, views and voices relate to each other and to other women’s diaries and life writing of the period, challenging traditional assumptions about these women as well as ideological assumptions about Victorian women writers.