Born in Gower Street, London, the son of the distinguished mathematician Augustus De Morgan and his highly educated wife Sophia Elizabeth Frend, De Morgan was supported in his desire to become an artist. At the age of twenty, he entered the Royal Academy schools, but he was swiftly disillusioned with the establishment. Then he met Morris and through him the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Soon De Morgan began experimenting with stained glass, ventured into pottery in 1863, and by 1872 had shifted his interest wholly to ceramics, initially working in Fitzroy Square.