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  ‘Pagan’ with young visitor, Dorich House Gallery, c. 1950s

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  Dorich House with Richard Hare and Dora Gordine on roof, c. 1936

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  Dora Gordine at work in her studio, c. 1956

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  Dora Gordine relaxing in the Dorich House Gallery, c.1939

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  Dora Gordine and Richard Hare in their flat at Dorich House, c. 1939

 

 

Dora Gordine (1895-1991)

 

Talented, charismatic and dedicated to her art, Dora Gordine was hailed in 1938 as 'possibly the finest woman sculptor in the world' and she remained a major presence in European sculpture until the late 1960s. Trained in Tallinn and Paris during the 1920s Gordine achieved critical acclaim in 1926 with the bronze Head of a Chinese Philosopher exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries in Paris (now on display at Dorich House). She settled in Kingston in 1936 and remained living and working at Dorich House until her death in 1991.

 

Richard Hare (1907-1966)

Richard Gilbert Hare was the second son of the fourth Earl of Listowel.  Educated at Oxford, the Sorbonne and Berlin University, he developed a lifelong interest in the study and collection of Russian art and culture.

Following a brief career in the Foreign Office, Hare spent the war working for the Anglo-Soviet Relations Division of the Ministry of Information before becoming a Professor of Russian Literature at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London. He died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack in 1966.

 

The Dorich House Museum (1936)

 

The Museum, which is the former home of the internationally acclaimed Estonian Sculptor Dora Gordine (1895-1991), holds the major collection of her bronzes, paintings and drawings, and a superb collection of Russian Imperial Art, gathered by her husband, the Hon. Richard Hare. The two studios, gallery and top floor apartment were all designed by Gordine herself in 1935/6. You may recognise her stylish and artistic interiors, which have been used as sets for films, videos and TV programmes.

Richard Hare died in 1966, but at the time of Gordine’s death in 1991, her executors were still searching for a suitable custodian to satisfy the terms of a joint bequest by the Hares to leave the house and its collections in trust for the education and enjoyment of the British public. Following an introduction through the Board of Governors, Kingston University rescued the house and its collections from dereliction in 1993 and the newly restored building was opened in 1996.

The house became a Museum in 2004, and was awarded Full Accreditation status in 2009 under the MLA Museum Accreditation Scheme which sets nationally agreed standards for all museums in the UK.

 

StaffSpace internal news item: Dorich House awarded Museum 'Accreditation'