Collection: Dorich House Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Under the terms of Dora Gordine’s will, and appropriate deeds from Lloyds Bank to Kingston University, Dorich House and its land were transferred to the University in 1994. In the same year, under a Deed of Disposition of Chattels, the collections were transferred to Kingston University.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: Not known

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Dorich House, completed to Gordine’s design in 1936, is the museum’s largest exhibit. It is the sole remaining example of an artist’s studio house in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and one of a few studio house museums dedicated to the work of a woman artist.

  The museum collection, formally established on 20 July 1994, falls into the following main categories:

  • Sculpture, drawings, and paintings by Dora Gordine
  • Russian fine and applied art collected by Gordine and her husband the Hon. Richard Hare
  • Furniture owned by Gordine and Hare and used at Dorich House
  • Books and publications owned by Gordine and Hare during their lives at Dorich House
  • Archive material (photographs, publications, exhibition catalogues, press cuttings) relating to the lives and work of Gordine and Hare

  Collections mainly cover the lifetimes of Gordine (1895-1991), Hare (1907-1966) and Dorich House (designed 1935, completed 1936). The Russian art collection dates from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The museum collections also include archive material related to the setting up of the museum, along with further research material and oral history accumulated since 1994.

  Gordine was born in Latvia and lived in Liepāja, Tallinn, Paris, Johor, and London. She exhibited her work internationally and visited the United States with her husband on academic business. Hare was a Russian specialist, formerly a diplomat and later an academic, writer, and translator. These geographical areas are represented in the collections.

  Sculpture, drawings, and paintings of Dora Gordine. The collection contains more than 160 sculptures both in plaster and in finished bronze, including generic heads, portrait heads and figures.

  Russian fine and applied art. The Russian collection includes porcelain figurines, tableware, and Easter eggs; painted and gilded icons; paintings and engravings; lacquerware, metalwork, and furniture.

  Books and other publications. A selection of books and publications found at Dorich House at the time of Gordine’s death are included in the museum collection, among them, personal copies autographed to Gordine by the authors and publications illustrating the interests of both Gordine and Hare.

  Archive material and photographs. The archive contains: personal memorabilia of Gordine and Hare; correspondence and copies of correspondence (where the originals are held elsewhere) to and from Gordine and Hare and others; exhibition catalogues; press cuttings, photographs and research material collected by curatorial staff; files relating to the transfer of Dorich House to Kingston University and the setting up of Dorich House Museum.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date:

  Licence: CC BY-NC