Dorothy Larcher

Dorothy Larcher (1884-1952) was an English designer of textiles, known for the printing workshops she shared with Phyllis Barron in Hampstead (1923-1930) and Painswick, Gloucestershire (1930-1940).[1]

Early life and education

Dorothy Larcher was born in St. Pancras, London, the daughter of William Gustavus Francis Larcher and Eliza Arkell Larcher.[2] She attended Hornsey School of Art, where she would later teach.[3] She learned about block printing textiles while traveling in India as a paid companion and assistant to British artist Christiana Herringham.[4]

Career

Larcher joined Phyllis Barron in a textile workshop in Parkhill Road, Hampstead, in 1923. From 1925 to 1927, Enid Marx was their apprentice. They produced custom-printed fabrics on commission, for decorators and fashion designers. Larcher's designs tended to be more organic than Barron's geometric prints. Their works were featured in a show called "Handmade Textiles and Pots" at Heal's Mansard Gallery in London.[5]

The couple moved their workshop to Hambutts House, Painswick in Gloucestershire in 1930. An outbuilding at their new location became a workshop with a large vat for indigo. The gardens were used to grow plants valuable to their work, either for dye-making or for visual inspiration. The workshop closed around 1940, in the face of wartime shortages.[6] Among their major commissions they provided hand-printed linen for the interior furnishings, including upholstery and curtains, of a new wing at Girton College, Cambridge in 1932,[7] and curtains for the choir stalls at Winchester Cathedral.[2]

After their workshop days, Larcher painted nearly 40 floral studies.[3] Their textiles toured museums in the United States during World War II, as part of a larger exhibition by the British Council on contemporary British craftsmanship.[8]

Personal life

Dorothy Larcher died in 1952, at a nursing home in Stroud.[2] She had lived and worked in partnership with Phyllis Barron for almost thirty years.[9] After Barron's death, their samples and collections were passed down to artist Robin Tanner; they are now held at the Crafts Study Centre at the University for the Creative Arts in Surrey.

References

  1. ↑ Marjorie Orpin Gaylard, "Phyllis Barron (1890-1964). Dorothy Larcher (1884-1952). Textile Designers and Block Printers" The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1890-1940 3(1979): 32-39.
  2. 1 2 3 Barley Roscoe, "Larcher, Dorothy Mary (1882–1952)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004).
  3. 1 2 Barley Roscoe, "Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher" in Margot Coatts, ed., Pioneers of Modern Craft: Twelve Essays Profiling Key Figures in the History of Twentieth-Century Craft (Manchester University Press 1997). ISBN 9780719050596
  4. ↑ Mary Lago, Christiana Herringham and the Edwardian Art Scene (University of Missouri Press 1996): 208. ISBN 9780826210241
  5. ↑ Hazel Clark, "Printed Textiles: Artist Craftswomen 1919-1939" Ars Textrina 10(1988): 53-70.
  6. ↑ "Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher", VADS: The Online Resource for Visual Arts, Crafts Study Centre.
  7. ↑ Lesley Jackson, Twentieth Century Pattern Design (Princeton Architectural Press 2007): 69-70. ISBN 9781568987125
  8. ↑ Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher textile archive, Crafts Study Centre.
  9. ↑ Bridget Elliott, "Art Deco Hybridity, Interior Design, and Sexuality between the Wars: Two Double Acts: Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher/Eyre de Lanux and Evelyn Wyld" in L. Doan and J. Garrity, eds., Sapphic Modernities: Sexuality, Women and Modern Culture (Springer 2006): 109-128. ISBN 9781403984425

External links

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