拍品 138
  • 138

DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH | Smith-Petersen Pin

估價
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
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招標截止

描述

  • Barbara Hepworth
  • Smith-Petersen Pin
  • signed and dated 1949; also signed, dated 1949 and titled on the reverse
  • oil and pencil on board
  • 51 by 61cm.; 20 by 24in.

來源

Acquired directly from the Artist by Alex. Reid & Lefevre, London
Acquired from the above by Wilfrid A. Evill, September 1954, by whom bequeathed to Honor Frost, 1963
Her sale, Sotheby’s London, The Evill/Frost Collection, 15th June 2011, lot 6, where acquired by the present owner

展覽

New York, Durlacher Brothers, Barbara Hepworth, October 1949, cat. no.17;
London, Alex. Reid & Lefevre, New Sculpture and Drawings by Barbara Hepworth, February 1950, cat. no.48;
London, The Whitechapel Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Retrospective Exhibition 1927-1954, April - June 1954, cat. no.127;
London, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Pictures, Drawings, Watercolours and Sculpture, April - May 1961, (part IV - section 2), cat. no.1;
Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery, The Wilfrid Evill Memorial Exhibition, July - August 1965, cat. no.52.

Condition

The board appears to be stable. The board undulates very slightly in places. There are a small number of small flecks of loss with one at the lower edge, a small grouping at the upper edge, in the upper left quadrant, and one or two smaller areas elsewhere. There are some further intermittent scuffs to all four extreme edges, most notably in the upper left quadrant. There are some extremely fine lines of craquelure, only visible upon close inspection. Subject to the above the work appears to be in very good overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals no obvious signs of fluorescence or retouching. The work is held behind glass within a painted wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

拍品資料及來源

We are grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her kind assistance with the cataloguing apparatus of the present work, which is recorded as D 212 in the Artist's records. The incredibly beautiful series of paintings and drawings that Barbara Hepworth made of surgeons at work have always featured in wider accounts of her work. Yet it wasn’t until 2013 that they were properly brought together, in the wonderful exhibition at The Hepworth, Wakefield (which subsequently toured to Pallant House, Chichester). Seen as a group, the true lyrical beauty of these works was immediately apparent. Seeing a sculptor work in two dimensions is always intriguing: the way they establish weight and bulk through the most economic of means and, despite best intentions, the way form always dominates over line and colour, which inevitably lends sculptors’ paintings the feel of early Italian Renaissance art. Hepworth’s Smith-Peterson Pin is no exception and to see it through a lens of Giotto or Masaccio is perhaps the best way to appreciate its quiet beauty and its subtle humanism, as a very emotive tenderness is expressed through serious, scientific endeavour.

Following the hospitalisation of her young daughter Sarah in 1944, Hepworth struck up a friendship with her surgeon Norman Capener. It was Capener who first suggested Hepworth observe some of their procedures at the hospital and whilst she was initially horrified by the idea, Hepworth was eventually persuaded. As the project progressed, the sculptor was struck by the atmosphere of calm concentration she experienced in the operating theatre, something she felt was akin to what happened in the studio, especially when a work was progressing well: particularly the exquisite combination of rhythm and precision, of unthinking movement executed through the intensive practise of skill.  

As Hepworth herself wrote: 'From the very first moment I was entirely enthralled by the classic beauty of what I saw there; classic in the sense that architecture and function were perfectly blended and purity of idea and grace of execution were in complete harmony… The medical profession…seeks to restore and to maintain the beauty and grace of the human mind and body; whatever illness a doctor sees before him, he never loses sight of the ideal, or state of perfection, of the human mind and body and spirit towards which he is working. The artist…seeks to make concrete ideas of beauty which are spiritually affirmative, and which if he succeeds becomes a link in the long chain of human endeavours which enriches man’s vitality and understanding, helping him to surmount his difficulties and gain a deeper respect for life.'  (Barbara Hepworth, The Artist's View of Surgery, 1953, quoted in Nathanial Hepburn, Barbara Hepworth: The Hospital Drawings, Tate Publishing, London, 2012, p.81).

Hepworth’s hospital drawings are also significant given they were produced in the very early years of Britain’s pioneering National Health System (NHS) which was launched in 1948. A ground-breaking initiative, the NHS spoke of hopes for a fairer, more inclusive society in post-war Britain. Its cause was something that spoke to Hepworth’s own ideas and so her ‘hospital drawings’ constitute a personal investigation into the possibilities of an egalitarian system, where a team works together towards a common cause, and all of us are equal at that moment - on the operating table, sedated, our bodies opened up - in front of God. As she wrote specifically of the Smith-Peterson Pin procedure: ‘In this operation I was more aware of the figure of the patient – with whole thing had a feeling of magic about it!’  (the Artist, quoted in Hepburn, ibid.,p.109).

Smith-Petersen Pin was originally owned by Wilfrid Evill, a collector with a remarkable passion for and understanding of contemporary British art during the inter-war period. It was part of the extraordinary Evill/Frost Collection, which was sold at Sotheby’s, London, in 2011 and which remains one of the most significant auctions of Modern British art. Often given the pick of an artist’s latest output, Evill’s collection was defined by works of excellence and rarity, reflecting his innate eye for quality; Smith-Peterson Pin is certainly one such example.