Acquired directly from the Artist by E.C. (Peter) Gregory
Exhibition History:
London, Lefevre Gallery, Paintings by Barbara Hepworth, Paintings by LS Lowry, 1948 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 3);
Wakefield, City Art Gallery, York, City Art Gallery and Manchester, City Art Gallery, Festival of Britain Exhibition, 1951 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 60);
St Ives, Tate Gallery, Opening Study Display – Barbara Hepworth; Hospital Drawings, 1993 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue);
Woking, The Lightbox, 2D:3D – Discover the Art of Sculpture: Sculpture & Sculptors’ Drawings from The Ingram Collection, 1 February – 1 March 2008;
Hepworth Wakefield, Barbara Hepworth: The Hospital Drawings, October – February 2013. This travelled to Pallant House, Chichester, February – June 2013, and Mascalls Gallery Kent, June – August 2013;
Bristol, Royal West of England Academy, Drawing On, 21 March – 7 June 2015;
Woking, The Lightbox, The Road to Abstraction, 21 May – 24 July 2016;
Woking, The Lightbox, Picturing People, 20 January – 1 April 2018;
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Berwick Visual Arts (Granary Gallery), Spirited – Women Artists from The Ingram Collection, 26 May – 13 October 2018;
Woking, The Lightbox, The St Ives School, 6 April – 23 June 2019;
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, War and Rumours of War: 1940s British works on paper from The Hepworth Wakefield, 6 July – 15 September 2019;
Woking, The Lightbox, Redressing the Balance: Women Artists from The Ingram Collection, 11 August – 20 September 2020;
Wakefield, The Hepworth Wakefield, Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life, 21 May 2021 – 27 February 2022 then touring to Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, April – October 2022
Literature:
Nathaniel Hepburn, Barbara Hepworth, The Hospital Drawings, London, 2012 (illustrated, p. 54, 124)
This work shows Hepworth’s immense skill as a draughtsman. In 1944 her daughter Sarah was hospitalised and operated on by the surgeon Norman Capener. Hepworth was struck by the similarities between surgeons and artists, commenting that, “there is, it seems to me, a close affinity between the work and approach of both physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors.” At Capener’s invitation, Hepworth was allowed to sit in on surgical procedures between 1947- 49, producing nearly 80 drawings of operating room scenarios. Her drawings of surgeons and their operating rooms are powerful and beautiful, and critics consider them to occupy an outstanding place in her work.
