DORA CARRINGTON (1893-1932)
Self-Portrait, 1913
pencil, watercolour, gouache and chalks on paper
signed and dated ‘Carrington ‘13’
55.5 x 30.5 cm
This bold and rare self-portrait was painted around 1913 when Dora Carrington was almost at the end of her time at the Slade School of Fine Art. She was considered to be one of the most talented students of her generation which included many of the key names of 20th century British art such as Stanley Spencer, David Bomberg, William Roberts, Mark Gertler, Christopher Nevinson, Paul Nash and others.
There are very few known self-portraits by Carrington: an early drawing of around 1910 exists, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery; and a rather stylised woodcut from around 1916.
Provenance
A gift from the artist to Sylvia Gilman (nee Meyer);
with Thomas Agnes & Sons Ltd, 1968;
d’Offay Couper Gallery, London, where purchased by Mrs Gillian Raffles, 3 October 1968 for £175.
with JJ Rawlin, where purchased.
Exhibited
London, d’Offay Couper Gallery, Fifty Drawings, October - November 1968, no. 10 as ‘Portrait of the Artist’.
London, Upper Grosvenor Gallery, Carrington: A Retrospective Exhibition, November 1970, no. 107 as ‘Slade Student in Fancy Dress’.
London, Barbican Art Gallery, Carrington: The Exhibition, September - December 1995, no. 7.
Welbeck, Harley Gallery, Kindred Spirits, November 2021 - February 2022.
Literature
N. Carrington, Carrington: Paintings, Drawings & Decorations, London, 1980, pl. 34 as ‘Slade Student in Fancy Dress’.