Dame Barbara Hepworth

Acquired through Gimpel Fils, London, by Mr and Mrs M. Bendon
Stone Gallery, London
Gimpel Fils, London, where acquired by the family of the present owner, 13th December 1982

London, Gimpel Fils, Barbara Hepworth, May 1958, cat. no.10 (another cast);
Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Modern Sculpture, 8th October - 5th November 1958, cat. no.39 (another cast);
Rome, Rome-New York Art Foundation, Moments of Vision, July - November 1959, un-numbered exhibition, illustrated p.30 (another cast); 
New York, Galerie Chalette, Hepworth, October - November 1959, cat. no.23, illustrated (another cast); 
St Ives, Penwith Society of Arts, Summer Exhibition, 1960, cat. no.49 (another cast);
Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery, Northern Artists, 16th July - 7th August 1960, cat. no.26 (another cast), with Arts Council tour to Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Bolton Art Gallery, Bolton, Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford, Carlisle Public Library and Art Gallery, Carlisle;
Dortmund, Stadthaus Unterer Galerie, Malerei und Plastik aus Leeds, May - June 1961, cat. no.25 (another cast); 
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, Sculpture 1961, 15th July - 2nd September 1961, cat. no.22, illustrated (another cast), with Welsh Committee of the Arts Council tour to Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and University College, Bangor;
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: An Exhibition of Sculpture from 1952-1962, May - June 1962, cat. no.30, illustrated (another cast); 
London, O'Hana Gallery, International Exhibition and Sale of Contemporary Art, 15th - 24th November 1962, cat. no.18 (another cast);
St Ives, Penwith Society of Arts, Autumn Exhibition 1962, Autumn 1962, un-numbered exhibition (another cast); 
London, John Lewis Partnership, Oxford Street, Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture and Drawings, April 1963, cat. no.4 (another cast);
Little Missenden, Little Missenden Festival, October 1965 (another cast); 
London, Gimpel Fils, Collectors' Choice XIV, June 1967, cat. no.25, illustrated (another cast);
London, Gimpel Fils, Barbara Hepworth, October - November 1972, cat. no.8 (another cast);
London, Gimpel Fils, Barbara Hepworth: 50 Sculptures from 1935 to 1970, 7th October - 15th November 1975, cat. no.19, illustrated; 
West Bretton, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Barbara Hepworth, 19th July - 31st October 1980, cat. no.5, illustrated p.15 (another cast). 

J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, London, 1961, p.22, cat. no.BH234, illustrated (another cast);  
A. M. Hammacher, Barbara Hepworth, Thames & Hudson, London, 1968, p.131, illustrated pl.106 (another cast);
David Fraser Jenkins, Barbara Hepworth: A Guide to the Tate Gallery Collection at London and St Ives, Cornwall, Tate, London, 1982, p.17, illustrated p.31(another cast);
Tate Gallery Acquisitions 1980-2, Tate, London, 1984, pp.115-16, illustrated;
Richard Cork, 'On Growth and Form,' Tate: The Art Magazine, no.4, Winter 1994, illustrated p.38 (another cast); 
Sally Festing, Barbara Hepworth: A Life of Forms, Viking, London, 1995, p.229;
Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens, Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Gallery Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives, Tate Publishing, London, 1999, cat. no.41, illustrated p.169 (another cast);
Penelope Curtis, Barbara Hepworth, Tate Publishing, London, 1998/2013, p.52, illustrated p.53 (another cast).

The sculpture is structurally stable and appears to be in overall excellent condition. Please contact 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."

We are grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her kind assistance with the cataloguing apparatus for the present work, which will feature in her forthcoming revised catalogue raisonné of the Artist's sculpture.

Hepworth visited Greece in 1954, and left inspired by the light, landscape and art of the region, evocatively describing how this was to influence her sculpture in the following years: 'I remember standing on Patmos and thinking - with that incredible stretch of sea and islands before me - how intensely a figure rising in the distance expressed that perfect elevation of the human spirit which in a way is conveyed by a powerful sculptured form...' (J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, London, 1961, p.10). Torso II (Torcello) is one such work which bears the influence of this trip, unifying in one flowing form the figural and the abstract. As if to illustrate the artist’s words to the very letter, Hepworth had this work – and the other two works in this series – photographed against the sea, realising her Greek vision of the human spirit captured in sculptural form.

Torso II (Torcello) is one of three Torso sculptures which date from 1958, falling between Torso I (Ulysses) and Torso III (Galatea). All three forms carry a strong sense of upward movement, suggesting a spiritual ascendance reminiscent of Hepworth’s vision of the ‘elevation of the human spirit.' Their Mediterranean influence is further emphasised by the subtitles of each;  Ulysses and Galatea both draw on mythical and literary inspiration, whilst Torcello refers to the island north of Venice, famous for its Bzyantine mosaics in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Dell'Assunta.

The form of Torso II (Torcello) is one of bony solidity; broad shoulders rise towards the sky, whilst the body of the torso is smooth and taught, punctuated by the swelling suggestion of the hips towards the base. This sense of the figural is further emphasised by the amorphous modelling of the work; shaped first in plaster before being cast in bronze, it retains the feeling of the artist’s touch in its subtly undulating form, a notion furthered by her working of the bronze itself. It was at this time that Hepworth also began to cut and carve into the surface of her bronze works, noting that: 'I only learned to love bronze when I found that it was gentle and I could file it and carve it and chisel it' (letter to Ben Nicholson, 2nd October 1966), and the surface of the work bears evidence of this filing and cutting. This working and weathering of the surface renders it almost curiously bone- or stone-like, a man-made sculpture which embodies an organic form, transcending traditional sculptural confines.