New Acquisition, Dora Gordine, Seated Baby 1937-8
NEW ACQUISITION
DORA GORDINE, SEATED BABY (1937-8)
Thanks to the generosity of private patrons, Dorich House Museum recently acquired one of Gordine’s early public sculptures, Seated Baby (1937-8), which is now on display in the Modelling Studio.
Commissioned in autumn 1937, by H.S.E. Vanderpant, the Mayor of Westminster, Seated Baby was Gordine’s second public commission in England. The work was created for the entrance to the Westminster Council Maternity and Child Welfare Centre and Day Nursery at Bessborough Street, Pimlico. Vanderpant presented it to the Governors of the Centre in May 1938, to commemorate the building’s opening by Queen Elizabeth in November 1937. It is likely that Gordine met the model for the work, Verena Joan Dawnay, at the wedding of her sister-in-law, Lady Patricia Hare, where Dawnay was a bridesmaid.