Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975)

Biography: Born in Wakefield, Barbara Hepworth DBE attended Leeds School of Art 1920-21 then studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London 1921-24 (Henry Moore was a contemporary and friend). Visits to France in the 1920s and 30s, where she met Picasso and Braque amongst others, had a profound effect and she also acknowledged the influence of Brancusi. She was married first to sculptor John Skeaping then to painter Ben Nicholson with whom she had triplets and moved to St Ives in 1939. She became one of Britain’s leading abstract artists. Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her studio in 1975 and, following her wishes, her studio in St Ives became a museum of her works and subsequently also an outpost of the Tate.