04
February 2026

Dora Carrington: The Tragic Muse of Bloomsbury

Welcome to The Arts Society South Downs
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 - 10:30
Fittleworth Village Hall
School Lane Fittleworth RH20 1JB
Online Event

Lecture

Fascinating as much for her life as her art, Carrington (as she preferred to be known) eventually formed one corner of a typically Bloomsbury triangular relationship. She 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 long (and improbable) relationship with the biographer Lytton Strachey was followed by marriage to Ralph Partridge and these complexities played a part in her death at the age of only 38.

Alan Read
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 twenty 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.