Dora de Houghton Carrington (1893-1932), known simply as Carrington, remains one of the most intriguing and, for a long time, underappreciated figures of early twentieth-century British art. Her life, marked by unconventional relationships and a fierce, often private, dedication to her art, unfolded against the backdrop of a rapidly changing social and artistic landscape. A painter of portraits and landscapes, a gifted decorative artist, and a prolific letter writer, Carrington’s work offers a unique window into the modernist spirit and the intimate world of the Bloomsbury Group, though she always maintained a degree of independence from it. Her story is one of immense talent, emotional complexity, and ultimately, tragedy, leaving behind a body of work that continues to captivate and invite re-evaluation.
Early Life and Artistic Awakening
Born on March 29, 1893, in Hereford, England, Dora Carrington was the fourth of five children in a middle-class family. Her father, Samuel Carrington, was a merchant who had spent time in India working on railway construction, and her mother, Charlotte Houghton, came from a family with a background in engineering. This upbringing, while comfortable, was not overtly artistic, yet Carrington displayed an early aptitude for drawing. The family moved to Bedford when she was young, and it was here that her formal education began.
She attended Bedford High School, a progressive institution for girls that notably emphasized arts, music, and sports alongside academic subjects. This environment likely nurtured her burgeoning talent. Carrington was not a conventional student in some respects, reportedly disliking team sports but excelling in individual pursuits. Her artistic promise was recognized, and she received encouragement to develop her skills. This early support was crucial, setting her on a path towards a more formal art education, a significant step for a young woman of her time.
The Slade School of Fine Art: A Crucible of Talent
In 1910, at the age of seventeen, Carrington won a scholarship to the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London. This marked a pivotal moment in her life, immersing her in an environment teeming with new ideas and talented individuals. The Slade, under the professorship of figures like Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer, and Frederick Brown, was renowned for its emphasis on draughtsmanship and traditional skills, yet it was also a place where students were exposed to the currents of modern European art.
During her time at the Slade, Carrington distinguished herself, winning prizes for figure painting and drawing. She was known for her distinctive appearance, often sporting a boyish bob haircut that defied conventional femininity, and for her somewhat reserved yet observant nature. It was here that she began to shed her provincial upbringing and forge her artistic identity. She was part of a remarkable generation of students, often referred to as the Slade's "crisis of brilliance," which included artists who would go on to define British modernism.
Among her contemporaries were Mark Gertler, with whom she would have a tumultuous romantic relationship, Paul Nash and his brother John Nash, Christopher R. W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer, William Roberts, and David Bomberg. These artists were all grappling with the legacy of Post-Impressionism, the rise of Cubism and Futurism, and the search for a distinctly modern British voice. Carrington, while perhaps less overtly radical in her early style than some of her peers, absorbed these influences, experimenting with different approaches. She formed close friendships and rivalries, and the competitive yet stimulating atmosphere of the Slade undoubtedly honed her skills and broadened her artistic horizons. It was also at the Slade that she began to explore woodcut printing, a medium she would return to throughout her career, influenced in part by Gertler's own work in this area.
The Bloomsbury Connection: Lytton Strachey and a New World
While the Slade provided Carrington with her formal artistic training, her introduction to the Bloomsbury Group and, most significantly, to the writer and biographer Lytton Strachey in 1915, would profoundly shape her personal and artistic life. The Bloomsbury Group, an influential collective of writers, artists, and intellectuals including Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, E.M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, art critics Roger Fry and Clive Bell, and painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, championed modernist aesthetics and liberal social values.
Carrington met Strachey through mutual acquaintances, possibly at a gathering hosted by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Strachey, a homosexual, was fifteen years her senior and an established intellectual figure. Despite his sexual orientation, Carrington fell deeply and irrevocably in love with him. Their relationship became the central emotional axis of her life, a complex bond of devotion, intellectual companionship, and shared domesticity that defied easy categorization.
Although she became intimately connected with many members of the Bloomsbury circle, Carrington never fully identified as a "Bloomsburian." She maintained a certain detachment, perhaps due to her shyness, her focus on her visual art in a predominantly literary group, or her unique relationship with Strachey. Nevertheless, she was a frequent visitor to their homes, such as Charleston Farmhouse, the Sussex home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and participated in their social and intellectual life. The group's emphasis on personal relationships, artistic freedom, and a rejection of Victorian conventions provided a supportive, if sometimes challenging, environment for Carrington. Her association with Bloomsbury exposed her to a wider range of artistic and literary ideas, and her portraits of Strachey and other members of the group are among her most compelling works.
Artistic Style and Thematic Concerns
Carrington’s artistic output was diverse, encompassing painting, drawing, woodcuts, and a wide array of decorative arts, including painted furniture, tiles, inn signs, and book jackets. She was not an artist who adhered rigidly to a single stylistic dogma, instead developing a personal visual language that blended various influences.
Influences and Evolution
Her early work shows the solid grounding in drawing she received at the Slade. Influences from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, particularly artists like Paul Cézanne and Pierre Bonnard, can be discerned in her handling of light, color, and form, especially in her landscapes. She was also aware of Primitivism and the work of artists like Henri Rousseau, which may have informed a certain directness and naivety in some of her compositions. While she was exposed to more radical movements like Cubism through her Slade contemporaries and figures like Roger Fry, her own work tended towards a more lyrical and observational modernism rather than overt abstraction. There are also occasional hints of Surrealism in the slightly unsettling or dreamlike quality of some of her imagery, though she was not formally associated with the Surrealist movement.
Portraiture: Capturing Souls
Portraiture was a significant aspect of Carrington's oeuvre. She possessed a remarkable ability to capture not just a physical likeness but also the inner life and personality of her sitters. Her portraits are often characterized by their psychological intensity and emotional depth. Her most frequent and arguably most important subject was Lytton Strachey. Her numerous depictions of him, in various media, chart the course of their relationship and reveal her profound understanding of his complex character. Notable examples include the oil painting Lytton Strachey (c. 1916), which shows him bearded and reading, a work of tender observation.
She also painted other friends and acquaintances, including Mark Gertler, the writer E.M. Forster, and Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell. Her portrait Mrs. Box (c. 1919-20), a depiction of Mary St John Hutchinson, another Bloomsbury associate, is a striking example of her ability to combine strong design with sensitive characterization. Carrington often worked on a relatively small scale, lending an intimacy to her portraits.
Landscapes: An Intimate Vision
Carrington had a deep love for the English countryside, and landscape painting was a consistent thread throughout her career. Her landscapes are rarely grand or picturesque in the traditional sense; instead, they often focus on specific, personally significant locations, imbued with a sense of quiet contemplation and emotional resonance. She painted the landscapes around her various homes, including Tidmarsh Mill House in Berkshire, where she lived with Strachey, and later Ham Spray House in Wiltshire.
Works like Farm at Watendlath (1921), painted during a visit to the Lake District, is one of her most celebrated landscapes, showcasing her distinctive use of pattern, flattened perspective, and a muted yet rich color palette. Willows (1920) is another example of her ability to find beauty and artistic inspiration in the everyday rural scene. Her landscapes often convey a strong sense of place and a deep connection to the natural world, reflecting perhaps a desire for stability and peace amidst the complexities of her emotional life. She also painted landscapes during her travels abroad, notably in Spain, such as Spanish Landscape with Mountains (c. 1924), which capture the unique light and atmosphere of different environments.
Decorative Arts: Art in Everyday Life
Beyond painting on canvas, Carrington was a highly skilled and imaginative decorative artist. She applied her talents to a wide range of objects, transforming everyday items into works of art. This aspect of her practice aligns with the ethos of the Omega Workshops, founded by Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant in 1913, which aimed to break down the barriers between fine and applied arts and bring modernist design into domestic interiors. While not formally a member of Omega for long, she shared its spirit.
Carrington painted intricate designs on furniture, created decorative tiles, designed book jackets for the Hogarth Press (run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf), and made charming glass paintings (verre églomisé). She decorated tinder-boxes, bellows, and even entire rooms. This work was often undertaken for friends or for her own homes, making it deeply personal. Her decorative style was characterized by its wit, charm, and a distinctive blend of folk art influences with modernist sensibilities. This aspect of her work underscores her belief in the importance of art in daily life and her desire to create beautiful and harmonious environments.
Key Relationships and Personal Turmoil
Carrington's personal life was intensely complex and often fraught with emotional turmoil, profoundly influencing her art and her well-being.
Lytton Strachey: An Unconventional Love
The cornerstone of Carrington's adult life was her relationship with Lytton Strachey. From their meeting in 1915 until his death in 1932, she was utterly devoted to him. Their bond was unconventional: Strachey was openly homosexual and had relationships with men, yet he and Carrington formed a deep, loving, and co-dependent partnership. They lived together for many years, first at Tidmarsh Mill House and later at Ham Spray House. Carrington created a comfortable and supportive home for Strachey, managing the household and dedicating herself to his well-being, often at the expense of her own artistic ambitions. She once wrote, "I loved him as I shall never love anyone else." This profound attachment, while a source of great happiness and companionship, also made her exceptionally vulnerable.
Mark Gertler: A Passionate but Troubled Affair
Before her relationship with Strachey solidified, Carrington had a passionate and difficult affair with her fellow Slade student, the painter Mark Gertler. Gertler, a talented and intense artist from a working-class Jewish background, was deeply in love with Carrington and desperately wanted to marry her. Carrington was fond of him and admired his work, but she could not reciprocate his intense romantic feelings, particularly after meeting Strachey. Their relationship was marked by Gertler's jealousy and emotional demands, and Carrington's eventual rejection of him caused him great pain. Despite the turmoil, their connection had an artistic dimension, with Gertler influencing her early exploration of woodcuts. He painted several striking portraits of her, most famously Merry-Go-Round (1916), which, while not a direct portrait, is often seen as reflecting the frenetic and sometimes nightmarish quality of modern life and perhaps his own emotional state.
Ralph Partridge and the Ham Spray Ménage
In 1918, Carrington met Ralph Partridge, a friend of her younger brother Noel. Partridge fell in love with Carrington, and Lytton Strachey also developed an attraction to him. This led to one of the most famous and unconventional domestic arrangements of the era. In 1921, Carrington married Ralph Partridge, partly, it is believed, to secure her relationship with Strachey and maintain their shared household, as Partridge was also devoted to Strachey. The three of them lived together at Ham Spray House in what became a complex triangular relationship.
Carrington and Partridge had a son, though some sources suggest the child was not biologically his, adding another layer of complexity. The marriage was not a conventional one; Carrington's primary emotional allegiance remained with Strachey. Partridge, in turn, had affairs, notably with Frances Marshall, whom he would later marry. This "ménage à trois" was a source of both stability and strain. While it provided a framework for their lives, the underlying emotional currents were often turbulent. Carrington's letters and diaries reveal her struggles to navigate these intricate relationships and her persistent feelings of insecurity and anxiety.
Other Significant Figures
Carrington also formed other important, if less central, relationships. She had a brief but intense affair with Gerald Brenan, a writer and friend of Strachey and Partridge, who lived in Spain. This relationship, like others, was complicated by her overarching devotion to Strachey. She also maintained friendships with other figures in and around the Bloomsbury circle, such as Julia Strachey, Lytton's niece. These connections provided intellectual stimulation and companionship but could also be sources of emotional stress.
Notable Works: A Closer Look
Several of Carrington's works stand out for their artistic quality and their significance within her oeuvre.
_Portrait of Lytton Strachey_ (c. 1916, National Portrait Gallery, London): This iconic oil painting depicts Strachey seated, reading, with his characteristic long beard. It is a work of quiet intimacy and profound psychological insight, capturing both his intellectualism and a certain vulnerability. The composition is balanced, and the colors are muted yet rich, reflecting Carrington's sensitive handling of her subject.
_Farm at Watendlath_ (1921, Tate, London): This landscape, painted during a stay in the Lake District, is one of her most celebrated. It features a distinctive, slightly flattened perspective, strong patterns in the fields and stone walls, and a harmonious, almost tapestry-like quality. The painting conveys a deep sense of peace and connection to the rural environment.
_Mrs. Box_ (or _Portrait of Mrs. St. John Hutchinson_) (c. 1919-20, Private Collection): This portrait of Mary St John Hutchinson, a prominent Bloomsbury hostess, is a striking example of Carrington's portraiture. The bold, simplified forms and the direct gaze of the sitter create a powerful and modern image.
_Spanish Landscape with Mountains_ (c. 1924, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford): Painted during a trip to Spain with Strachey, Partridge, and Brenan, this work captures the stark beauty of the Andalusian landscape. The strong light and shadows, and the distinctive forms of the mountains, are rendered with a clarity and intensity that differentiate it from her English landscapes.
_The Mill at Tidmarsh_ (1918, Private Collection): This painting depicts the home she shared with Lytton Strachey. It is an affectionate portrayal of their domestic environment, imbued with a sense of warmth and personal significance. The composition and handling of light reflect her developing modernist sensibilities.
_Lying Woman_ (1912): An early work, likely from her Slade period, demonstrating her skill in figure drawing and her engagement with contemporary artistic trends. It showcases her ability to handle the human form with sensitivity and strength.
These works, among many others, demonstrate Carrington's versatility as an artist and her unique ability to infuse her subjects—whether people, places, or objects—with deep personal meaning.
A Reluctance to Exhibit: The Private Artist
One of the defining characteristics of Carrington's artistic career was her profound reluctance to exhibit her work publicly. Unlike many of her contemporaries, who actively sought gallery representation and inclusion in exhibitions, Carrington was intensely private about her art. She rarely signed her paintings and often gave them away to friends or kept them for her own enjoyment. She did exhibit occasionally, for instance with the London Group, but these instances were infrequent.
This aversion to the public art world stemmed from a combination of factors. She was inherently shy and lacked self-confidence in her artistic abilities, despite the praise she received from those close to her. She may have feared criticism or felt that her work was too personal to be subjected to public scrutiny. Furthermore, her dedication to Lytton Strachey and the demands of managing their household often took precedence over promoting her own career. This reluctance meant that, during her lifetime, her work was not widely known beyond her immediate circle. Consequently, her contribution to British modernism was largely overlooked by contemporary critics and art historians.
The Final Years and Tragic End
The late 1920s and early 1930s were a period of increasing emotional strain for Carrington. While her life with Strachey and Partridge at Ham Spray House continued, the complexities of their relationships and her own insecurities weighed heavily on her. The pivotal blow came in late 1931 when Lytton Strachey fell seriously ill. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and after a period of intense suffering, he died on January 21, 1932.
Strachey's death devastated Carrington. He had been the anchor of her emotional life, and his loss left her adrift and inconsolable. Her friends, including Virginia Woolf and Ralph Partridge, were deeply concerned about her state of mind. Despite their efforts to support her, Carrington sank into a profound depression. Less than two months after Strachey's death, on March 11, 1932, Dora Carrington died by suicide at Ham Spray House, using a gun borrowed from a friend. She was only 38 years old. Her tragic end cut short a unique artistic talent and left a void in the lives of those who knew and loved her.
Legacy and Reappraisal
For many years after her death, Dora Carrington remained a relatively obscure figure in art history. Her reluctance to exhibit, combined with her early death and the overshadowing fame of Lytton Strachey and other Bloomsbury figures, contributed to this neglect. However, from the 1960s onwards, there has been a gradual but steady reappraisal of her life and work.
Posthumous Recognition
The publication of her letters and diaries, notably David Garnett's edition Carrington: Letters and Extracts from Her Diaries (1970), and later Michael Holroyd's acclaimed biography of Lytton Strachey (which featured Carrington prominently), brought her compelling story to a wider audience. These publications revealed the depth of her emotional life, her intelligence, and her artistic dedication. Subsequent biographies and critical studies focusing specifically on Carrington, such as Gretchen Gerzina's Carrington: A Life (1989) and Jane Hill's The Art of Dora Carrington (1994), further illuminated her achievements.
Influence on Later Artists
While it is difficult to trace direct lines of influence due to her limited public exposure during her lifetime, Carrington's unique artistic vision, her fusion of modernist sensibilities with a personal, almost diaristic approach, and her commitment to decorative arts resonate with later generations of artists, particularly female artists seeking to express personal experience and challenge traditional artistic hierarchies. Her exploration of domestic spaces as sites of artistic creation also prefigures later feminist art practices.
Carrington in Art History
Today, Dora Carrington is recognized as a significant, if idiosyncratic, figure in early twentieth-century British art. Her work is valued for its emotional honesty, its distinctive style, and its contribution to the broader currents of modernism. She is seen as an artist who successfully navigated the space between the traditional and the avant-garde, creating a body of work that is both deeply personal and artistically compelling. Art historians now acknowledge her skill as a portraitist, her innovative approach to landscape, and her imaginative contributions to decorative art. Her life story also provides a poignant case study of the challenges faced by female artists in a male-dominated art world and the complex interplay between personal life and artistic creation. Artists like Augustus John, Henry Lamb, and Albert Rutherston were part of her broader artistic milieu, though her closest artistic dialogues were often with her Slade contemporaries like Gertler or Bloomsbury figures like Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.
Exhibitions and Continued Interest
The growing recognition of Carrington's importance has been reflected in a number of significant exhibitions. A major retrospective, "Carrington: The Exhibition," was held at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 1995, which brought together a comprehensive selection of her paintings, drawings, woodcuts, and decorative art, significantly raising her public profile. Her works are now held in major public collections, including the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Ashmolean Museum.
More recently, the exhibition "Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury," scheduled for Pallant House Gallery in Chichester (2024-2025), signals continued scholarly and public interest in her work. Such exhibitions provide opportunities to see her art firsthand and to reassess her place within the context of British modernism and the Bloomsbury Group. The ongoing publication of her letters, such as Anne Chisholm's edition Dora Carrington: Letters (2017), continues to provide rich insights into her life and mind.
Conclusion
Dora Carrington was an artist of rare talent and profound sensitivity. Her life was a tapestry of intense emotional connections, artistic exploration, and a quiet but determined pursuit of her own vision. Though her career was tragically short and her work often created in private, she left behind a legacy that continues to fascinate and move us. Her paintings, drawings, and decorative arts reveal a unique artistic voice, one that captured the nuances of human relationships, the beauty of the English landscape, and the spirit of a modernist age. As an art historian, I see Dora Carrington not merely as an adjunct to the Bloomsbury Group or as a tragic romantic figure, but as a gifted and original artist in her own right, whose contributions to British art are increasingly, and deservedly, celebrated. Her story reminds us of the importance of looking beyond established narratives to uncover the rich and diverse talents that have shaped our artistic heritage.
