Dora Gordine Lady of Java 1930-35

Lady of Java was painted during Gordine’s time living, working and travelling in Southeast Asia, between 1930 and 1935.  It is one of two paintings in the museum collections, historically titled as Lady of Java and Portrait of a Burmese Woman. Gordine’s comments for an article published in The Straits Times in 1953, however, suggest that they are of the same young Malay woman, first painted by Gordine when she was an occupant of what was then known as the Johore Lunatic Asylum (Portrait of a Burmese Woman, see below) and later on her recovery (Lady of Java).