At Rest Under the Baobab Trees

The Baobab Tree is one of Africa’s oldest and most beautiful trees. There are nine species in the world that can be found on mainland Africa as well as Madagascar, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. It is affectionately known as the ‘upside down tree’, after its typical spray of branches that are comparable to an underground root system. The Baobab tree has the ability to grow to 25 or 30 meters tall and some are recorded to have lived up to 2,500 years old. 

In this work, Carey Morgan represents the harmony of man and nature. Villagers, dressed in bright patterned clothing, gather around the base of the towering baobab tree, sheltering in its shade. Traditional straw-roof housing is just visible in the background of the image. Carey Morgan presents her figures sympathetically and in a documentary style, without trying to exoticise their way of life - this artwork serves as a snapshot of daily life.

The colour palette is vibrant, and demonstrates Carey Morgan’s ability to depict light and shade in the pastel medium. She draws areas of dappled sunshine on the trunk of the tree and on the ground below it, whilst areas of shade are depicted in a deep blue as opposed to black. The clothing of the figures also stands out visually, with its bright colours and patterning, and is an instantly identifiable marker of traditional African culture.

Dorothy Carey Morgan

Dorothy Carey Morgan was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, in 1886 as the daughter of a British solicitor. For a large portion of her life, Carey Morgan was based in London, living in the St Johns Wood and Lincoln’s Inn areas. Throughout the 1920s, she embarked upon voyages around central and Southern Africa, creating a number of pastel and watercolour pictures of the landscapes and people that she saw along her way.

By 1914, European empires had fully colonised the African continent - Britain was occupying vast swathes of southern, eastern and western Africa, and it is to these locations that Carey Morgan travelled. She visited the British colonies of Transvaal (a region of South Africa), Nyasaland (now Malawi), the Seychelles, and Portuguese Mozambique. Carey Morgan’s works on paper explore the vibrant natural landscapes of these locations. Often combining the sublime enormity of natural phenomenons, such as mountain ranges and vast lakes, with domestic scenes of every-day village life. The vibrancy of her chosen materials and considered composition convey an intense beauty in each scene, with man and nature living in harmony. 

Carey Morgan was not bound to the pastel and watercolour mediums, and was a talented etcher, engraver and sculptor too. Between 1909 and 1939, she exhibited with the Royal Society of Artists Birmingham, International Society, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, The Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Painters and Water Colours and Royal Scottish Academy. Carey Morgan also created two works for the Scottish Women’s Hospital depicting two different view-points of L’Abbaye de Royaumont, a Cistercian abbey located in Val-d’Oise, France.

Dorothy Carey Morgan passed away in 1982, leaving behind a legacy as a well-travelled and worldly woman artist, with immense skill across a range of diverse artistic mediums.