Dora Carrington

The Artist's Dining Room, Ham Spray, Berkshire
Thence to her husband, Ralph Partridge and his second wife Frances
Gifted by Frances Partridge to Lady Anne and Heywood Hill and thence by family descent

London, Barbican Art Gallery, Carrington - The Exhibition, 1995, lent by Lady Anne Hill (unnumbered).

Noel Carrington, Carrington: Paintings, Drawings and Decorations, Oxford Polytechnic Press, Oxford, 1978, p.7, illustrated pl.24;
Jane Hill, The Art of Dora Carrington, The Herbert Press, London, 1994, to coincide with Carrington - The Exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery, 1995, illustrated p.70.

The canvas is original and is undulating. There are visible lines along each edge, which appear to show where the canvas was previously stretched. The canvas has apparently been removed from the original stretcher and been attached with adhesive tape to a new stretcher. There is a craquelure pattern occurring across the surface, which corresponds with the underlying undulation and the old stretching. There are some flecks of old paint loss, including two spots and scattered small flecks in the upper left corner, a few tiny flecks near the upper edge and a few flecks to the aforementioned lines of old stretching along the right and lower edges. There are one or two additional tiny flecked losses across the surface. The surface is dirty with scattered specks of surface staining. Ultraviolet light reveals infilling to the aforementioned spots of paint loss in the upper left corner, three spots of retouching near the right edge, a few flecks near the lower edge, a small spot to craquelure beneath the central horses and a few other flecks across the surface. This work is unframed. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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The inspiration for the present painting appears to have come from a visit Carrington made to Austria in February 1922, where she sketched the Lippizaner horses going through their displays of haute ecole.

Carrington chose this picture to hang above the fireplace at Ham Spray. It was later in Frances Partridge's collection in London before being given by her to the Hills, old friends and owners of the eponymous book shop in Curzon Street.