Dora Carrington Paintings, Bio, Ideas

"If only I had any money I should not be obliged to stick at home like this. And to earn money every day, and paint what one wants to, seems almost impossible."

1 of 7

"I would like this year (since for the first time I seem to be without any relations to complicate me) to do more painting. But this is a resolution I have made for the last 10 years."

2 of 7

"I believe if one wasn't reserved, and hadn't a sense of what is possible one could be very fond of certainly two or three people at a time, to know human beings intimately, to feel their affection, to have their confidences is so absorbing that it's clearly absurd to think one only has the inclination for one variety."

3 of 7

"What a damned mess I make of my life and the thing I want most to do, I never seem to bring off. My work disappoints me terribly. I feel so good, so powerful before I start and then when it's finished, I realise each time, it is nothing but a failure."

4 of 7

"So few women have reached any high plane of creators. And the few that did become artists, I think you will admit, were never married, or had children."

5 of 7

"My new studio is going to be lovely. I shall when it's finished, completely change my character and become a very hardened recluse and paint pictures all day. Then all these spinster ravings will no longer blast my letters to you."

6 of 7

"About the more modern stuff I am not really at all sure: there is nothing that takes one's breath away like those masters."

7 of 7

Summary of Dora Carrington

Dora Carrington's impressive body of work is often overshadowed by the fiery dramas of her personal and romantic life. Indeed it can be difficult to ignore her many unconventional romances, her ambiguous sexual identity, and the dramatic suicide that ended her life when she was only thirty-eight years old. But looking beyond her sensational biography and carefully examining her work - which took the form of both painting and decorative arts - reveals an artist with a singular perspective. She was an artist who did not allow herself to be hemmed in by the trends of contemporary art. Instead, Carrington brought a unique blend of styles to her work, drawing from movements as disparate as Impressionism, Primitivism, and Surrealism. Most of her paintings are landscapes and portraits, and her sensitive rendering of her subjects reveals an artist with a keen eye who made an unrivalled contribution to European art of the early-20^th century.

Accomplishments

Working in a variety of styles, Carrington defied the artistic conventions of her contemporaries. Regardless of the style she worked in, a certain psychological depth was always there. From the penetrating intimacy of her portraits to the symbolism and mystery of her landscapes, emotional depth was a hallmark of her work.
Carrington was virtually unknown for her art during her own lifetime and seems to have received little encouragement from her peers to exhibit her work. It was not until the latter half of the 20^th century that her work received widespread recognition.
Although her work does not overtly address feminism or women's issues, both Carrington's lack of critical recognition and her interest in "feminine" subjects - landscapes of her home, decorative arts, portraits of personal acquaintances - subtly reveal the perspectives of women in early-20^th-century Europe, especially the struggles of women artists working in that context.

Biography of Dora Carrington

Dora Carrington was the fourth of five children - the second of two daughters. Her parents were Samuel Carrington, a railway engineer, and his wife, Charlotte Houghton. Her earliest days were spent in Hereford, a short distance east of Wales. Several years later the family moved to Rothsay Gardens in Bedford.

Read full biography

Read artistic legacy

Progression of Art

1912

Female Figure Lying On Her Back

Carrington painted this nude during her time as a student at the Slade School for Art in London. She entered the painting in a university contest, claimed second prize, and won a two-year scholarship to continue her education. Carrington would go on to claim first prize in the same contest the following year. Slade was the first school in Britain to allow female students to use nude models for painting, albeit with restrictions. Male and female students sketched models in separate rooms, and male models for female students were partially covered for the sake of modesty.

This nude is rendered in the style of the Old Masters; the pale female form at the center of the canvas stands out against the dark background. The model's head turns away from the viewer, giving her anonymity and keeping the soft curves of her body the primary focus of attention. The painting is remarkably sophisticated and accomplished for an early, student work, in its attentiveness to subtle variations in skin tone, and the careful attention to light and shadow. The model's torso, right arm, and legs convey a kind of feminine softness, though other elements of the painting are somewhat less precise and polished. The blankets, along with the model's right foot, for example, have a more improvisational and loosely sketched quality.

This early painting stands out among Carrington's works in that it consciously imitates the established style of the historic female nude. As she developed as an artist, Carrington would deliberately distance herself from the historic and contemporary art styles, seeking to develop her own distinctive, personal, and autobiographical style.

Oil on Canvas - University College London Art Museum

1916

Lytton Strachey

Lytton Strachey was the great love of Carrington's life. It should not be surprising, then, that her portrait of him reveals especial depth and intimacy. The portrait casts Strachey in a fond, flattering light, intently reading a book in bed. His long hands and bushy reddish-brown beard stand out as prominent features. At the time Carrington painted this portrait, Strachey was working on Eminent Victorians (1918), a four-part biography of leading figures from the era, a work that would establish his enduring reputation as an important historical biographer.

The detail and emotional honesty of the painting speaks to the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, who were concerned with expressing genuine ideas in a heartfelt, personal manner, while paying careful attention to detail, using the rich color palettes of early Renaissance painting. Carrington draws from this tradition here, but the soft light and loose brushwork also suggest some influence of the Post-Impressionist movement. Post-Impressionist work had attracted the attention of some members of the Bloomsbury Group, including art critic Roger Fry and novelist Virginia Woolf. Carrington's portrait of Strachey was painted during the First World War, but its gentle, peaceful mood is worlds away from the fear and anxiety of war. It does, however, subtly suggest the stylistic shifts of the evolving world of modern art. Through its bringing together old and new styles, it anticipates - if only faintly - the dramatic shifts on the horizon for the modern art world.

Oil on Panel - National Portrait Gallery, London

1918

The Mill at Tidmarsh

This painting depicts the quaint home in the English countryside shared by Carrington and Lytton Strachey from 1917 to 1924. Carrington depicts a tranquil, but lively scene. The house - which was central to Carrington's personal life - takes up most of the canvas, leaving little room for the pastoral fields, water, and trees of the surrounding landscape. Carrington's vibrant orange roof contrasts with the vivid greens of the overgrown grass and hedges and blue sky, creating both harmony and dynamism.

The influence of the Pre-Raphaelites is evident in this work's loving attention to the natural world and its beautiful simplicity. The Pre-Raphaelites were followers of the cultural critic John Ruskin, whose writings encouraged artists to return to nature, "rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing." His philosophy is at play in Carrington's painting, since the natural world is a vital, active component of her work; it is far more than mere background. Still, Carrington's loving focus on the quirks of her home suggests that she also had her own agenda.

Although Carrington is often lumped in with the Bloomsbury set, this painting reminds us of her independence from the group. Carrington lived in a world of her own, which was a respite from the gray stones and close-packed buildings of London. While many of the Bloomsbury artists were drawn to the experimentalism and iconoclasm popular in the modern art movements of the 1910s, Carrington's early paintings are somewhat ahead of their time in that they reveal a certain nostalgia for a threatened, vanishing English way of life. These sentiments are most commonly associated with the art being produced in Europe in the years just before the Second World War.

Oil on Canvas - Private Collection

1921

Farm at Watendlath

During the late 1910s and early 1920s, Carrington's subjects were mostly intimate portraits and landscapes. This painting depicts Watendlath Farm, near Keswick in the Lake District of England, where she spent a summer holiday with her husband and their friends in 1921. It was during this trip that Carrington met the writer Gerald Brenan, who became one of her lovers. Thus, the trip was especially meaningful for Carrington, suggesting the poignancy of this painting.

As in Carrington's other landscape paintings, the image of this small, verdant farm immediately creates a sense of intimacy, and even of pleasant escapism. The identities of the woman and the child dressed in white are not known. Throughout her work Carrington depicted women of different ages, in what seem to be meditations on femininity and what it means to be a woman. Scholars have argued that the two female figures in this image, who are dwarfed by a fertile and hilly landscape, could serve a metaphorical purpose. Just like these small, vulnerable figures who are lost in their large landscape, Carrington was an artist who was overwhelmed by her own struggle with her identity as a woman and artist in early the early-20^th century. This interpretation is plausible, given Carrington's fraught relationship with the social norms of her time.

Oil on Canvas - Tate Britain

1923

Rouen Ware

This unique, colorful depiction of fruits, flowers, and a brightly plumed bird on a brass urn is one of what Carrington called her "tinseled pictures," which she often presented as gifts to friends. These were essentially collages on glass, which she created by outlining her overall design in black or deep blue ink on the back of the pane, and then filling in the outline with collage elements composed out of textured foil paper, and covered them with a blend of opaque and transparent paints. Art historian Jane Hill claims that the success of these pieces came from Carrington's intuitive understanding of "how much glass to leave uncovered and how much work the silver will do." The textured foil and the warm, metallic hues of the piece lend it a romantic, old-fashioned delicacy. Some elements of the composition, particularly the bird's tail and the red bloom at the top left, seem to have an almost mosaic quality. The unique technique reveals Carrington's ingenuity as an artist and her willingness to combine old traditions with new ones.

In addition to these works in foil and glass, Carrington also completed a number of impressive domestic art pieces for her friends and intimates, including fireplace tiles, frescoes, signs for inns and pubs, and an intricately decorated gramophone for the Strachey family. Though many of these pieces are sadly lost to history, those that remain have gained considerable attention in recent years from Carrington scholars, who argue these pieces are a testament to the broad range and skill of this long underappreciated artist.

Oil, Ink, and Silver Foil on Glas

1924

Spanish Landscape with Mountains

Carrington traveled in Spain in 1924, visiting the Andalusia region, which was the inspiration for this painting. She spent much of her visit in the town of Yegen, where her friend and occasional lover Gerald Brenan was living. When she returned home to Tidmarsh Hill, where she completed the painting, she wrote to Brenan, "I am working on the landscape you liked; the round mountains near the gorges. I am trying a new plan, an entire underpainting in brilliant colors, over which I shall glaze green and more transparent colors."

The unnaturally smooth, rolling hills in the foreground contrast with the jagged peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the far distance, creating the impression of a surreal, alien landscape. This painting marks a stark contrast to Carrington's other landscapes, in which mellow greens, blues, and whites are the predominant colors. Those colors, of course, were a logical choice for her depictions of the English countryside. But here, she depicts the Andalusian landscape in vibrant oranges and yellows, as if using color to highlight the differences between her homeland and the more arid (though still verdant) landscape of southern Spain. Four mules and their guides can be seen travelling on a winding road in the distance, at the left side of the canvas. Again, Carrington has emphasized the tiny scale of human beings in relation to a powerful, perhaps overpowering, natural world. Indeed, the figures are so tiny as to barely be noticeable, which emphasizes the power and size of the hills and mountains through which these people travel. Carrington's otherworldly depiction of the terrain echoes the style of earlier British landscape artist, James Dickson Innes, who was famous for his mountain landscapes. Still, what is most striking about this particular work is its distinct distance from the modern, urban world. The absence of industrial, urban imagery is striking, and perhaps reveals Carrington's own desire to distance herself from the modern world.

Oil on Canvas - Tate Britain

1924-25

Portrait of E. M. Forster

This painting depicts Carrington's friend, the writer E. M. Forster. Much of his fiction critically examined British society, particularly the upper and middle classes. Surprisingly, given its careful attention to detail, the portrait was not painted with the benefit of a live sitting. Still, Carrington successfully captured something essential about her friend in the portrait. As the painter Henry Lamb said of the portrait, "I think there is something so very good about your head of Forster."

The painting differs slightly from Carrington's earlier portraits in that it uses a looser, more impressionist painting style. Given the fact that Forster's novels were known for their use of symbolism, it is unsurprising that Carrington's chose to work in an impressionist style rather than a realist one. The color palette is subdued, primarily comprised of peach, gray, and beige tones. Whereas her portrait of Strachey depicted the sitter as absorbed and fascinated, Forster seems pensive, even troubled. Carrington's ability to adjust her style to best convey the character of her sitters is evidence of her great artistic skill and sensitivity.

Oil on Canvas - National Portrait Gallery, London

1928

Julia Strachey

This portrait of Lytton Strachey's niece is painted in the same impressionistic style as Carrington's portrait of E. M. Forster, but the bold, vibrant color palette and golden light are typical of her some of her earlier portraits. Julia Strachey was a writer, and her guarded expression and steady gaze give the impression a woman with a clever wit and critical eye. The severity of Strachey's gaze is balanced by the softness and color of her clothing and accessories, providing a visual balance between strength and softness - between the intellectual and the worldly realms.

Carrington had known Strachey for many years at the time of this painting, having met her during the early years of her friendship with Lytton Strachey. The two women cultivated a close friendship, which provided Carrington with a confidante. Later, Carrington began to develop romantic feelings for Julia, writing to her in October 1929: "I wish I was a young man and not a hybrid monster, so that I could please you a little in some way, with my affection. You know you move me strangely. . . . You charm me so much." Julia was quite happily married, and the relationship Carrington hoped for never came to pass. Knowing Carrington's romantic feelings for Strachey, and that they remained unrequited may shed some light on this striking portrait, which is at once beautiful and austere.

Oil on Canvas - Private Collection

Similar Art

Carlos Enríquez (1926)

Alice Neel

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86)

Georges Seurat

Post-Impressionism

Influences and Connections

Influences on Artist

Influenced by Artist

Artists

Friends & Personal Connections

Roger Fry
Clive Bell

Movements & Ideas

Artists

Friends & Personal Connections

Aldous Huxley
D. H. Lawrence

Open Influences

Close Influences

Useful Resources on Dora Carrington

Books

websites

articles

video clips

Books

The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet.

biography

artworks

The Art of Dora Carrington (1994)Our Pick
By Jane Hill

View more books