Dora Carrington (1893-1932)

The present work was painted in Lytton Strachy's library at Tidmarsh Mill with the curtains in the background. Carrington was particularly fond of tulips, growing them in her window box at her London house and later in her garden at Tidmarsh and then at Ham Spray where she planted a large bed with a mix of several varieties. She painted them both in oil and as in the present work on glass with foil. Carrington began creating her so-called 'tinselled pictures' from 1923. They found a popular audience and she sold them regularly as well as giving them as gifts to friends. Hill describes her technique: 'Made by the simple device of back-painting on glass, Carrington outlined her design, with a fine nib, in Prussian blue or black ink and filled in with a mixture of translucent and opaque paints Carrington dressed the forms she had painted with collage of silver papers, stuck directly onto the glass ... the art was in knowing how much glass to leave uncovered and how much work the silver should do' (see J. Hill, The Art of Dora Carrington, London, 1995, p. 121).