Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975

London, Lefevre Gallery, Paintings by Barbara Hepworth, Paintings by L.S. Lowry, 1948, no.3;
Wakefield, City Art Gallery, York, City Art Gallery and Manchester, City Art Gallery, Festival of Britain Exhibition, 1951, no.60;
St Ives, Tate Gallery, Opening Study Display - Barbara Hepworth: Hospital Drawings, 1993, no number.

Hepworth's series of hospital drawings and paintings, executed between 1947 and 1949, grew out of her contact with the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter when her daughter Sarah required surgery. Hepworth was particularly impressed by leading orthopaedic surgeon Norman Capener (1898-1975) who may well be the subject of the present work. Capener, an amateur painter and sculptor in his own right, allowed Hepworth into the operating theatres to make notes with a sterilised pen and pad in the Exeter hospital and later at the National Orthapaedic Hospital in London. Using these notes, Hepworth worked on the paintings and drawings immediately aftewards from memory.

For further details on Hepworth's friend E.C. (Peter) Gregory, managing director of Lund Humphries, see note to lot 61A.