drawing
- Museum number
- 2008,7082.1
- Description
-
Sculptural forms, c1938; sketch of a large geometric sculptural form, with three smaller studies
Ink on paper
- Production date
- 1938-1939
- Dimensions
-
Height: 305 millimetres
-
Width: 400 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- There is an early unidentified photograph, probably pre-1940, in the Barbara Hepworth archive (with Alan Bowness) of this drawing (letter from Alan Bowness to Stephen Coppel, 28 July 2008). The drawing is close to a well-known drawing ,'Sculptural Forms', 1938, which belonged to Helen Sutherland and then Nicolette Gray (letter from Alan Bowness to Stephen Coppel, 17 July 2008) and reproduced (upside down) as 'Drawing' (plate 51a) in Herbert Read's Barbara Hepworth monograph of 1952.
This drawing belonged to the architect Sir Leslie Martin, and was subsequently acquired by Alan Bowness, the former Director of the Tate Gallery. It is reproduced on p.53 of Alan Wilkinson's 2015 monogaph on Hepworth's drawings, and he connects the composition with Hepworth's interest in D'Arcy Thompson's 'On Growth and Form'.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2008-9 Sept.-Jan BM, British Sculptors' Drawings, no cat.
- Acquisition date
- 2008
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
Alan Bowness saw the actual drawing on a visit to Leslie Martin, Cambridge in May 1994, and made a rough sketch of it; the drawing subsequenttly turned up in a sale at Christie's, South Kensington on 24 June 1996, lot no. 222, and did not sell, whereupon Alan Bowness offered £1,000 plus VAT for it after the sale and purchased it (letter from Alan Bowness to Stephen Coppel, 28 July 2008).
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2008,7082.1
