Dora Carrington
Dora Carrington was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group. She was born in Hereford into a comfortable middle-class family and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1910 to 1914. In 1917, she began living with the writer Lytton Strachey, a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, with whom she shared a deep, though emotionally complex, bond. Strachey was homosexual, and while Carrington married another man, Ralph Partridge, and had several affairs, her devotion to Strachey remained unwavering. Tragically, she took her own life just weeks after his death.
Carrington’s artistic output included portraits, landscapes, and figure studies. She also created designs for the Omega Workshops and the Hogarth Press, run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. In later years, she focused much of her creative energy on decorative projects at Ham Spray, the Wiltshire home she shared with Strachey and Partridge from 1924. A prolific letter writer, she often filled her correspondence with charming, illustrated drawings.
Her work was rarely exhibited during her lifetime, and for many years after her death, she remained largely overlooked.
P.S. Check out her other painting featured in our Women Artists 50 Postcards Set. :)
P.P.S. Because of her affection to Strachey, Carrington remained in a love triangle for years—a period when she produced some of her most beautiful artworks. Read more about the fascinating life of Dora Carrington.