Dora Gordine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dora Gordine, was a noted Russian-British sculptress, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (she was never prepared to reveal her year of birth).
She came to Paris to study music and art. Then, surrounded by galleries and salons, she "instinctively felt a correlation between the rhythms of music and sculpture" and developed her sculptural vision.
In 1925 Gordine 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 a Torso and head of a Chinese Philosopher received enthusiastic reviews; The Straits Times in 1932 wrote that: - "Like Byron, one morning Dora Gordine woke up famous".
The 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.
She married 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. Her husband introduced her to London society figures, many of whom sat for her, Dame Edith Evans, Dame Beryl Grey, Dorothy Tutin, Sian Phillips, Emlyn Williams, Sir Kenneth Clark, John Pope-Hennessy and Professor F. Brown, Head of the Slade School of Art. Each portrait head had its own patina according to Gordine's vision of her sitter. The sculptor commented when interviewed by the BBC in 1972 (Gordine commented that "[w]hen 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").
During the 40's and 50's 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 Society of British Sculptors in 1949. She occasionally did exotic or "adult" pieces (e.g. for Elizabeth Choy).
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.
Richard Hare's sudden death in 1966 from a heart attack left Gordine to live out her life alone in Dorich House. They had had no children. She never fully recovered emotionally and her career ended in the 1970s. She died in Dorich House in December 1991.
