Ballet (2): Giselle

Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 1975)

Oil and pencil on board

April 1950

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Barbara Hepworth © Bowness

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  • About the work
  • About the artist
    Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and studied at the Royal College of Art in London. One of Britain’s foremost sculptors, she visited Italy in 1924 to study marble carving. In Paris in 1933 she joined Abstraction-Création, an international exhibition society. Her work moved into an abstract phase, and with husband Ben Nicholson and others, she was at the forefront of the modern movement. At the outbreak of the war she moved with Nicholson to Cornwall. From 1951, after her marriage dissolved, she lived permanently in St Ives. Retrospectives were held at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1952 and 1962, and the Tate in 1968. She was created DBE in 1965. After her tragic death in a fire, her studio was opened as a museum.
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    Materials & Techniques
    board, oil, pencil, oil painting
  • Details
    Title
    Ballet (2): Giselle
    Date
    April 1950
    Medium
    Oil and pencil on board
    Dimensions
    height: 37.00 cm, width: 49.50 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Sotheby's, 5 March 1980
    Inscription
    signed and dated, bottom right: Barbara Hepworth 4/50
    Provenance
    Collection of Geoffrey Gibberd; by whom sold through Sotheby's, London, 'Modern British Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture' sale, on 5 March 1980 (Lot 172); from which sale purchased by the Department of the Environment
    GAC number
    14962