, 1924–25 ;
Lytton Strachey;
Oliver Strachey;
Frances Partridge (née Marshall), 1923. Carrington was not a member of the
Bloomsbury Group, though she was closely associated with Bloomsbury and, more generally, with "
Bohemian" attitudes, through her long relationship with the homosexual writer
Lytton Strachey, whom she first met in 1916. Distinguished by her cropped pageboy hair style (before it was fashionable) and somewhat
androgynous appearance, she was troubled by her sexuality; she is believed by some to have had an affair with
Henrietta Bingham. She also had a romantic relationship with the writer
Gerald Brenan. In June 1918,
Virginia Woolf wrote of Carrington in her diary: "She is odd from her mixture of impulse & self consciousness. I wonder sometimes what she's at: so eager to please, conciliatory, restless, & active.... [B]ut she is such a bustling eager creature, so red & solid, & at the same time inquisitive, that one can't help liking her." Carrington first lived with Lytton Strachey in November 1917, when they moved together to
Tidmarsh Mill House, near Pangbourne, Berkshire. Carrington met
Ralph Partridge, an Oxford friend of her younger brother Noel, in 1918. Partridge fell in love with Carrington and eventually, in 1921, Carrington agreed to marry him, not for love but to hold the
ménage à trois together. Strachey paid for the wedding, and accompanied the couple on their honeymoon in Venice. The three moved to
Ham Spray House in
Wiltshire in 1924; the house had been purchased by Strachey in the name of Partridge. In 1926, Partridge began an affair with
Frances Marshall, and left to live with her in London. His marriage to Carrington was effectively over, but he continued to visit her most weekends. In 1928 Carrington met
Bernard Penrose, a friend of Partridge and the younger brother of the artist
Roland Penrose, and they began an affair and also collaborated on the making of three films. Penrose wanted Carrington exclusively for himself, but that was a commitment she refused to make because of her love for Strachey. The affair ended when Carrington became pregnant and had an abortion. ;
W. J. H. ('Sebastian') Sprott;
Lytton Strachey, June 1926 During her lifetime, Carrington's work received no critical attention. Her work can be described as progressive and did not fit into the mainstream of art in England at the time. Part of her works included Victorian-style pictures which were made from coloured tinfoil and paper. Carrington included pen sketches in letters to her friends. She also created woodblock prints, which were highly regarded. Her lesser-known work included painted pub signs and murals, ceramics, fireplaces, and tin trunks. Carrington was better known for her landscape paintings, which have been linked to
surrealism. Her landscapes blend the facts of visual perception with interior desires and fantasies. One work of art,
Mountain Ranges from Yegen, Andalusia, 1924, shows the split in perspectives. There is an intimate foreground, and there is in the distance a view of the mountains. The main focus, on the middle mountains, exhibit the texture of human skin. This merges the notion of the personal being made public.
Relationship with Lytton Strachey , 1916 For many years, Carrington's art was neglected by the public, and her main notoriety was her relationship with
Lytton Strachey. On the day that she agreed to marry Partridge she wrote to Strachey, who was in Italy, what has been described as "one of the most moving love letters in the English language". She wrote, "I cried last night Lytton, whilst he slept by my side sleeping happily—I cried to think of a savage cynical fate which had made it impossible for my love ever to be used by you...". Strachey wrote back that "you
do know very well that I love you as something more than a friend, you angelic creature, whose goodness to me has made me happy for years, and whose presence in my life has been and always will be, one of the most important things in my life ...". On his deathbed Strachey said, "I always wanted to marry Carrington and I never did". His biographer calls that sentiment "not true; but he could not have said anything more deeply consoling". Upon his death, Strachey left Carrington £10,000 (roughly the equivalent of £576,000 in 2023). ==Death==