Dora Gordine
Other names: Hon. Mrs R Hare
Born 8 June 1895
Died 29 December 1991
Active: 1927 - 1956
Country of birth: Latvia
Country of death: England
Sculptor
Born in Latvia. Studied music and art in Paris in 1920s. Exhibited Salon de Tuileries from 1926 and Royal Academy from 1928. Travelled Far East 1929-35. Modelled and cast figures and portrait busts. Settled England in 1936 where she designed a house and studio in Richmond. Worked in Hollywood, United States on various commissions 1948. First solo exhibition Leicester Galleries 1928. A.R.B.S. 1938. F.R.B.S. 1949.
Commissions include: Senate House at University of London; Westminster Infant Welfare Centre; bronzes for Town Hall, Singapore 1929-35; Milford Haven Oil Refinery 1961.
Exhibitions include: regular exhibitor at Royal Academy from 1937; Sculpture in the Home, Arts Council 1946; Leicester Galleries, London; LCC 1948, 60.
Collections include: Tate Gallery; Gordine Collection at Dorich House, Kingston University.
Further reading: M. Sorrell, ‘Dora Gordine’, in Apollo, May 1949.
A. Symons, ‘A Triumph of Sculptural Form: the work of Dora Gordine’, in The Connoisseur, December 1958.
B. Read and P. Skipwith, Sculpture in Britain between the Wars, The Fine Art Society, London, 10 June – 1 August 1986, (exh. cat.).
Kingston ex cat
Biography from from Whiteley (2001) with additional information from Gibson (2004)
Wealth at death: £1,175,401 0s. 0d.
Probate date: 28 May 1992
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Chinese head
1927
A head
1938
Javanese head
1948
Meditation
1951
Reclining girl
1951
Laughing torso
1951
Locations
Address 214 Boulevard Raspail Paris | View on map
1927 - 1948
Address Dorich House Kingston Vale London | View on map
1937 (Circa) - 1991
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-First, 1927
'Chinese head'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Twelfth, 1938
'A head'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Second, 1948
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Fifth, 1951
'Meditation'
Exhibited at Exhibition of sculpture by Dora Gordine (Leicester Galleries), 1928
October 1928
Exhibited at Sculpture by Dora Gordine (Leicester Galleries), 1933
July 1933
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1937 - 1960
Exhibited 21 times (12 times up to 1951), thirty-seven works in all
Exhibited at Exhibition of recent sculpture and drawings by Dora Gordine (Leicester Galleries), 1938
January 1938
Exhibited at Sculpture by Dora Gordine (Leicester Galleries), 1945
October 1945
Exhibited at Exhibition of Open Air Sculpture, Battersea Park (London County Council), 1948
1948
Exhibited at Exhibition of recent sculpture including figures from the Ballet by Dora Gordine (Leicester Galleries), 1949
November 1949
Institutional and Business Connections
Associate member of Royal Society of British Sculptors
29 March 1938 - 1949
Became a Fellow in 1949.
Fellow of Royal Society of British Sculptors
1949
Unsuccessful in ballot for election to Royal Academy of Arts
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], despite nominations in 1942, 1949 and 1956.
Personal and Professional Connections
Nominated by Charles Thomas Wheeler
1938 (Presumed)
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Nominated by Alfred Frank Hardiman
1938 (Presumed)
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Nominated by James Fitton
21 January 1942
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Gilbert Ledward
21 January 1942 - February 1956
Three nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], 1942-1956, all unsuccessful. Date of nomination not specified as 'start date' or 'end date': 10 February 1949.
Nominated by Alfred Frank Hardiman
21 January 1942
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Charles Thomas Wheeler
21 January 1942 - 10 February 1949
Two nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], in 1942 and 1949, both unsuccessful.
Nominated by Edward Brantwood Maufe
21 January 1942 - 10 February 1949
Two nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], in 1942 and 1949, both unsuccessful.
Nominated by Malcolm Osborne
February 1956
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Sources
Directory of sculptors working and exhibiting in Britain in the 1950s, by Gillian Whiteley
2001
pp. 15-6
Dora Gordine: Sculptor, Artist, Designer
2008
Ernest Brown & Phillips Ltd., The Leicester Galleries. An index of 1422 catalogues of exhibitions of European Modern Art and 20th Century British Art, held between 1902 and 1977
http://www.ernestbrownandphillips.ltd.uk (accessed 17 July 2019)
List of Members: Royal Society of British Sculptors
2008
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Michael R. Gibson, ‘Gordine , Dora (1895–1991)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64479, accessed 25 July 2010]
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, c.1939-c.1961
1961 (Circa)
p.139.
Royal Society of British Sculptors. Annual Report of the Council, for the Year Ending 31 December 1949, to be Presented at the Forty-Sixth Annual General Meeting, 1950
February 1950
p. 4.
Citing this record
'Dora Gordine', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib6_1210669945, accessed 26 Mar 2023]
