Jocelyne Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 1975)

Born 10 Jan 1903 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of John Rattenbury Skeaping — married May 1925 (to Mar 1933) in Siena, Toscana, Italy

Wife of Benjamin Lauder Nicholson O.M. — married 17 Nov 1938 in Hampstead, London, England, United Kingdom

Died 20 May 1975 at age 72 in St Ives, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom

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Dame Barbara Hepworth was an English artist and sculptor.

Biography

Barbara Hepworth was born in Yorkshire, England.

Barbara is an English Sculptor and member of the Modernist movement

Barbara Hepworth is Notable.

Jocelyne Barbara Hepworth (/ˈdʒɒsəlɪn ˈbɑːb(ə)ɹə ˈhepwɜːθ/) was born 10 January 1903^[1] in Wakefield, Yorkshire. She was the eldest child of Herbert Hepworth and his wife, Gertrude Johnson. Herbert was a civil engineer working for the county council who later became the county surveyor.

In 1911^[2], she and her sister, Joan, were staying with her grandfather, Benjamin Hepworth, a wool manufacturer in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Her parents and her two youngest siblings were in Wakefield; perhaps it was a holiday for the two girls.

From 1909 to 1920 she attended Wakefield Girls' High School, where she had a music scholarship^[3]. In 1920 she was accepted into Leeds School of Art on a scholarship. There she met Henry Moore who became a close friend and professional rival. The following year she received a county scholarship to the Royal College of Arts in London where she received her diploma in 1923^[3].

She preferred the name Barbara and as an adult never used her given name.

In 1924 she entered the Prix de Rome for sculpture but the prize was won by John Skeaping, another English sculptor. She was awarded a West Riding Scholarship for one year's travel abroad. Barbara travelled to Italy, first Florence and then Rome where she met Skeaping. After a whirlwind romance they married in May 1925 in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence^[3]. They remained in Italy for the next 18 months.

Pierced Form - Pink alabaster - destroyed in 1944

They returned to London late in 1926 and set up home in the basement flat of 24 St Ann's Terrace, St John’s Wood where a blue plaque now marks their house. They both used it as their studio. In 1927 they held a studio exhibition and Barbara's work was bought for good prices, including Mother and Child^[3]. Like Henry Moore she was immediately at the forefront of modern sculpture.

In 1928 they moved to 7 The Mall, off Parkhill Road in Hampstead. This would remain Hepworth's studio until the summer of 1939. In August 1929 they had a son, Paul^[4].

In 1931, while on a family holiday in Norfolk she met the painter Ben Nicholson who was holidaying with his family. The attraction was immediate and destroyed both their marriages^[3]. Skeaping moved out of the home (they were divorced in 1933) and the following spring Nicholson moved in with Barbara.

Monolith Empyrean - Silurian limestone - 1953

In 1934, Barbara and Ben had triplets; Rachel, Sarah and Simon^[5]. Rachel and Simon later went on to become artists too. In 1938, Ben's wife finally granted him a divorce and Hepworth married Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office^[6].

By this stage her work, along with Moore's exemplified Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was one of the few female artists of her generation to achieve international prominence from her earliest works.

Along with Nicholson and other artists such as Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during the Second World War. In 1949 she bought the Trewyn Studio where she lived for the rest of her life.

Archaean - Bronze - 1959

Hepworth and Nicholson divorced in 1951. In 1953 her son, Paul, flying with the RAF crashed in Thailand and was killed. To recuperate, Barbara spent 1954 travelling in Greece and drew new inspiration from her travels^[3]. She began to work in bronze as well as her beloved wood and stone. She was appointed CBE in 1958 and DBE in 1965.

When Dag Hammerskjöld died in 1961, Hepworth was commisioned to create a memorial bronze. In 1964 her largest bronze sculpture, Single Form was installed outside the United Nations building in New York.

Barbara died, aged 72, in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975^[7]. She'd always been an inveterate smoker (many pictures of her show her smoking) and a cigarette set fire to packaging that caused the blaze.

From the beginning her work had always sold well and her estate was valued at £2,970,049^[8].

Sources

1. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2F6M-2SK : 1 October 2014), Jocelyne Barbara Hepworth, 1903; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
2. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWVJ-KZV : 31 May 2019), Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth in household of Benjamin George Hepworth, Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Hepworth Estate website; Biography page http://barbarahepworth.org.uk/biography/
4. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV3L-YV92 : 2 October 2014), Paul Skeaping, 1929; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Hampstead, London, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
5. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVQC-D5SV : 1 October 2014), Simon Hepworth-Nicholson, 1934; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Hampstead, London, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
6. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV8F-GH25 : 8 October 2014), Barbara Hepworth and null, 1938; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1938, quarter 4, vol. 1A, p. 1697, Hampstead, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
7. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCY-WGLD : 4 September 2014), Barbara Hepworth, 1975; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Penzance, Cornwall, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
8. ↑ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 1975 page 6515