Dora Gordine

Guadaloupe Head by Dora Gordine, 1928, Tate

Dora Gordine, FRBS (13 April 1895 – 29 December 1991) aka La Gordine, was an Estonian sculptor.^[1]

Early career to 1939

Dora Gordine's childhood has not been well documented. There is confusion over her date of birth with various dates 1895 (likely), 1898 and 1906 mentioned. She was the youngest of four children born to Morduch ("Mark") Gordin and Esther (née Schepschelevitch) in Liepāja, Latvia, at a time when it was still part of the Russian Empire. Two of her siblings, Nikolai and Anna, died at the hands of the Nazis in Tallinn, Estonia in 1941. Another brother, Leopold, escaped and lived in London until his death.^[2]

She came to Paris to study music and art, making the acquaintance of Aristide Maillol. Then, surrounded by galleries and salons, she "instinctively felt a correlation between the rhythms of music and sculpture" and developed her sculptural vision. Gordin gallicised her surname by adding an "e".

In 1925 she worked as a painter on a mural for the British Pavilion at the Decorative Arts Exhibition. It provided the means to cast a bronze for exhibition at the Beaux Arts Society. The following year she was invited to exhibit at the Salon des Tuileries where her design of the head & torso of a Chinese philosopher earned enthusiastic reviews; The Straits Times (1932) wrote: "Like Byron, one morning Dora Gordine woke up famous". Between 1929 and 1935 she sculpted bronzes for the City Hall, Singapore.^[3] Leicester Galleries in London presented Gordine's sculpture in a solo show in 1928. It was a huge success and all her work was sold, amongst which Javanese Head was bought by Samuel Courtauld for the Tate Gallery collection.

In 1935, together with her husband Richard Hare, Gordine turned to architecture, designing Dorich House in Kingston. The building exhibits a modernist combination of vernacular, classical and eastern features.^[4]

Marriage

In 1936 she married the Hon. Richard Gilbert Hare (5 September 1907 – 1966), son of Richard Granville Hare, 4th Earl of Listowel and Freda Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone on 21 November 1936. They lived at Dorich House, London.

Career

Her husband introduced her to London society figures, many of whom sat for her, Dame Edith Evans, Dame Beryl Grey, Dorothy Tutin, Siân Phillips, Emlyn Williams, Sir Kenneth Clark, John Pope-Hennessy and Professor F. Brown, Head of the Slade School of Art. There were also overseas commissions including the Philosopher Kuu Nim, whose head sculpture Gordine called 'the Chinese Lady of Peace' and a bas-relief at Gray's Inn to Sun Yat-Sen, the former leader of China.^[5]

Each portrait head had its own patina according to Gordine's vision of her sitter. When interviewed by the BBC in 1972 Gordine commented that "when you do portrait busts of somebody you do their noses and mouth – but it is nothing. You have to imagine what they are like inside and bring out their inner feeling and then put it in a form".^[6]

During the 1940s/50s Gordine's work was exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, the Society of Portrait Sculptors and elsewhere. Bronzes from this time have ironic or humorous titles, relating to the pose, such as 'Great Expectations' or 'Mischief' and, of an RAF Officer, 'Above Cloud'. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1949. She occasionally did exotic or erotic pieces (e.g. for Elizabeth Choy). She travelled and lectured in America, working in Hollywood, art lecturing and designing film sets^[7] in 1947 and revisited the USA in 1959.^[8]

In 1948 she was commissioned to produce a sculpture to stand in the new mother and baby unit at Holloway Prison in north London. 'Happy Baby' was largely forgotten by 2009 languishing in an administration block at the prison for many years. Now regarded as an important piece in 'La Gordine's' professional history it formed the centre piece of an exhibition of her work at Kingston University in February–March 2009.^[9]

In 1960 Esso commissioned a 7' x 5' bas-relief 'Power' for their new Milford Haven Refinery, which was unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh. Gordine's last public commission, the 8' long 'Mother and Child' was made for the entrance hall of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey, in 1963.

Widowhood

Her husband's sudden death in 1966 from a heart attack left Gordine to live out her life alone in Dorich House. She had no children. Her career ended in the 1970s. She had a great interest in her garden and, in particular, herbs and plants used for medicinal purposes, such as Tansy. Adrian Howes and Robert Ruthven were her part-time gardeners for nearly two years in the mid-seventies. She often invited the members of the Royal Ballet School to Dorich house to pose for her.

Death

She died in Dorich House in December 1991, aged around 96.

In subsequent years her work was to be revived by major exhibitions in London in 2006 at the Ben Uri Gallery in the London Jewish Museum of Art, and in 2009 at Dorich House and Kingston University.

Dorich House

Dorich House was designed by Gordine and completed in 1936. The house is spread across three floors; the ground and first floors devoted to the production and display of Gordine's work, with the upper floor forming the couple's private apartment. In 1994, it was acquired by Kingston University and was refurbished and formally opened as a museum in 1996, housing Gordine's collection of bronze and plaster sculptures and many of her paintings and drawings.^[10] There are also items from Hare's Imperial Russian art collection, which includes icons, paintings, ceramics, glassware, metalwork, folk art and furniture dating from the early 18th century to the early 20th century.

Major exhibitions

• Salon de Tuileries, Paris (1926, 1933)
• Leicester Galleries, London (1928, 1933, 1938, 1945, 1949)
• Royal Academy of Arts (1937–1941, 1944–1950, 1952–1960)
• Battersea Park Arts Council (1948)
• Fine Art Society, London (1986)
• The London Jewish Museum of Art (2006)
• Kingston University, London (2009)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dora Gordine.

• Ben Uri Gallery, London Jewish Museum of Art
• Dora Gordine on the University Scholars Programme Project, National University of Singapore
• Dorich House
• Kingston University website