DORA CARRINGTON: THE TRAGIC MUSE OF BLOOMSBURY.

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Dora Carrington was born in 1893 and studied at the Slade School of Art where she joined an extraordinary generation of modern British artists. Her student work showed promise but at a time when it was unusual for a woman to succeed as a professional artist.

Her impressive body of work is often overshadowed by the fiery dramas of her personal and romantic life. Indeed, it can be difficult to ignore her many unconventional romantic affairs, her ambiguous sexual identity, and the dramatic suicide that ended her life when she was only thirty-eight years old.

Looking beyond her sensational biography and carefully examining her work - which took the form of both painting and decorative arts - reveals an artist with a singular perspective. She was an artist who did not allow herself to be hemmed-in by the trends of contemporary art.

Carrington brought a unique blend of styles to her work, drawing from movements as disparate as Impressionism, Primitivism, and Surrealism. Most of her paintings are landscapes and portraits, and her sensitive rendering of her subjects reveals an artist with a keen eye who made an unrivalled contribution to European art of the early-20th century.

Alan Read has a masters and first-class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a gallery guide at Tate Britain and regularly lectures at both London Tates. For 20 years he was a gallery guide and lecturer at the National Portrait Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide.