OTD in early British television: 13 April 1937
Back from holiday; normal service resumes with OTD post no 123…
John Wyver writes: On the afternoon of Tuesday 13 April 1937, and then again that evening, a second series of producer Mary Adams’ series The World of Women opened with a 17-minute illustrated talk by sculptor Dora Clarke (above). The artist presented a number of her artworks in wood, bronze and ‘bronzed plaster’, and apparently demonstrated her method ‘on a half finished pig in wood’.
We have already met the artist as the presenter of Making a Poster in February 1938, and she made a number of other appearances on pre-war television. In July 1937 she demonstrated plaster casting in July 1937 (which is the likely occasion of the header image) and then illustrated the process of Making a Life Mask in November that year. She reprised the latter presentation in February 1939, and five months later, in July, she displayed hand block printing on textiles.
Starting at the age of 15, Clarke had first studied at the Slade as a part-time student at the Slade before the First World War, and then become a full-time student in 1915-16.
According to her entry in the invaluable online resource Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951:
From 1923 Dora exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy (1923-59), the Goupil Gallery (early 1930s), and other one-off venues such as the Women’s International Art Club exhibition at the Art Club, Suffolk Street (1932) where the other sculptors included Winifred Leveritt and Ethel Pye. Clarke quickly established a reputation as a carver in wood of African heads [after spending a year in Kenya in 1927-28, studying African art].
From 5-27 March 1936 Clarke was given her first one person show at the French Gallery (catalogue in the National Art Library). She exhibited wood carvings, bronzes and drawings of African heads. The reviewer in The Times said she ‘has a corner of her own in sculpture.’
In addition to these works, Clarke also executed a number of portraits and memorials, such as the one to Joseph Conrad at Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury (unveiled 1927) which comprised a panel and medallion portrait.
Sculptures by Dora Clarke can be seen here and here, as well as here.
This rather wonderful portrait of Dora Clarke was painted by Orovida Camille Pissarro in 1936 and is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It is reproduced under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
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