Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)

In 1970 Healing Overbury, the architects of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society's head office, commissioned Hepworth to create a relief for the façade of the building. They requested a maquette at the beginning of 1970 on a scale of about 1 inch to 1 foot, which she would make in painted hardboard (BH503): the present work (BH512A), in silver and walnut, derived from this hardboard maquette, and was made in an edition of six, and an edition of six in bronze was also cast (BH512B). These templates were made at Hepworth's Trewyn Studio in St Ives, and each semi-circular element was individually made, allowing each to be cast in silver or bronze (see S. Bowness (ed.), op.cit., pp. 164 and 166).


We are very grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her providing information in preparing this catalogue entry. Dr Sophie Bowness is preparing the revised catalogue raisonné of Hepworth's sculpture.