We will be discussing London’s artistic history through the eyes of legendary sculptor Dora Gordine and one of the world’s great painters William Turner with Fiona Fisher from Dorich House and Dr Matthew Morgan from Turner House. Fiona and Matthew will give talks on Gordine and Turner and the houses they built with a Q&A to follow!

If you can’t attend in person you can purchase a digital copy of the talk.

About the artists:

Doria Gordine (8 June 1895 – 29 December 1991) was an Estonian Jewish Modernist figurative and portraitist sculptor. Her early career was influenced by the Noor Eesti (‘Young Estonia’) group of artists who favoured Art Nouveau. She moved to Paris and on her third marriage, to Hon. Richard Hare (1907–66), her career expanded to the extent that some critics regarded her as amongst the finest sculptors of her generation. She specialized in portrait sculptures attracting international admirers from the political, social, artistic, literary and theatrical worlds. Her legacy also includes a number of public space pieces. Her latter career was not as prolific or as fêted and Gordine was relatively unknown at the time of her death. Major exhibitions in London in 2006 and 2009 have revived her standing and her former home in Kingston-upon-Thames is now a museum.

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. His home in Twickenham is now a museum with regular exhibitions about his work.

About the speakers:

Fiona Fisher from Dorich House Museum in Kingston

Fiona Fisher is the curator of Kingston University’s Dorich House Museum, the 1930s former studio-home of the artist Dora Gordine and her husband the Hon. Richard Hare. Fiona is a design historian whose research interests include British post-war domestic interiors, suburban modernity, and the design of the modern public house in England. Her publications include Designing the British Post-War Home: Kenneth Wood, 1948–1968 and the co-edited volumes The Picker House & Collection: A Late 1960s Home for Modern Art & Design, British Design: Tradition and Modernity after 1948, and Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior: From the Victorians to today.

Dr Matthew Morgan from Turner’s House Museum in Twickenham

Dr Matthew Morgan is Museum Director of Turner’s House in Twickenham and is an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, from where he also received his PhD. He has worked in the heritage sector for 10 years, including at the National Gallery and the Royal Collection. Prior to that, he was a Director at Christie’s. He has taught diverse audiences across the UK as well as made a series of short films which can be seen on YouTube. When not thinking about art, he likes to listen to jazz with a glass of red wine.

General Admission gives you £5 off the book  50 Women Sculptors!

How many women sculptors can you name? This book will challenge perceptions that sculpture is a male pursuit and help you to understand the work and lives of dozens of women sculptors – significant artists from the past as well as those working in the exciting and varied world of sculpture today. Dozens of colour photographs are featured alongside the words of the artists themselves.

To see more about the book 50 WOMEN SCULPTORS go here: