The Red Cross

"The Red Cross is considered one of De Morgan’s most successful paintings on the theme of war. The painting shows the figure of the risen Christ being borne heavenward by a choir of angels. He is symbolically clad in red and his arms are extended in a posture meant to recall his crucifixion. Below him lies a Belgian field of seemingly endless white memorial crosses marking the graves of the war dead. The identification of the fallen soldiers with Christ is clear and the notion of redemption is unequivocal.

De Morgan’s painting was inspired by, or is certainly in sympathy with Emil Cammaert’s poem, A Voice in the Desert (1915) that describes the bleak landscape on devastated Belgium that has become dotted with wooden crosses. Of all De Morgan’s war paintings, it is also perhaps her most conventional in its use of Christian / Biblical iconography. The very explicit reference to Christ, the cross and the crucifixion is, unusual for the artist, but it was commonplace in the work of contemporary poets as symbolic of sacrifice, redemption, victory and resurrection. "