‘Here Doman Turner reveals the influential teaching of Spencer Gore. It seems likely that Turner would have accompanied Gore on some of his regular trips to the theatre and certainly the construction of these theatre interiors owes much to Gore’s influence. The view of the stage and the silhouetted shapes of the flatly painted heads was a typical pictorial device used by Gore. Between 1910 and 1912 both Gore and Doman Turner produced a series of paintings and drawings of theatre interiors. Owen Dacroy, depicted in this study, was a character actor and an acting manager who was married to the comedienne Florence Smithers. The theatre may well have been the Brixton Empress, which was only a few miles from Streatham.’
Source: Spencer Gore & his Circle exhibition at Piano Nobile and the Museum of Richmond
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