Maquette (Variation on a Theme)

Details

DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH (1903-1975)
Maquette (Variation on a Theme)
bronze with a brown and green patina, on a marble base
17 ¼ in. (43.6 cm.) high, excluding base
Conceived in 1958 and cast in an edition of 9.
This work is recorded as BH 247.

Provenance

Private collection, Canada.
Purchased from the above by the previous owner.
Her sale; Christie's, London, 12 December 2012, lot 42, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, London, 1961, p. 170, no. 247, another cast illustrated.
M. Gale and C. Stephens, Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives, London, 1999, p. 182.

Exhibited

Middlesbrough, Art Council of Great Britain, Municipal Art Gallery, Penwith Society of Arts’s Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, January - February 1960, no. 41, another cast exhibited as ‘Variation on a Theme’: this exhibition travelled to Nottingham, Victoria Street Gallery, February - March 1960; Cirencester, Corn Hall, March - April 1960; Eastbourne, Towner Art Gallery, April 1960; Norwich, Castle Museum, May 1960; Newport, Museum and Art Gallery, June 1960; and Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, July 1960.
London, British Council, Barbara Hepworth, 1961, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Ceylon, 1961; Wellington, National Gallery, March 1961; Hong Kong, City Museum and Art Gallery, March - April 1962; Manila, Philippine-American Life Insurance Building, May 1962; Sarawak; Vietnam; Thailand; and Malaya, 1962-1963.
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: An Exhibition of Sculpture from 1952-1962, May - June 1962, n.p., no. 37, another cast illustrated.
Tehran, British Council, British Council Office, Barbara Hepworth, March - April 1966, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Isfahan, Municipal Museum, May - June 1969; Madras, British Council Office, January - February 1970; Bengaluru, Chitrakala Parishad Gallery, February - March 1970; Hyderabad, Municipal Museum, March 1970; Trivandrum, March 1970; Australia, April 1970; and New Zealand, January - December 1973.
Florence, British Council, Barbara Hepworth: Mostra Fotografica, con Disegni e Bronzi Originali, October 1966, another cast exhibited.
Kingston, Jamaica, British Council, Olympia Arts Festival, Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975: Small Sculptures, Drawings and Photographs of Sculptures, October - December 1975, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Guanajuato, 4^th International Cervantes Festival, May 1976; San Luis Potosí, Department of Fine Arts, June 1976; Aguascalientes, Casa de Cultura, July 1976; Guadalajara, August - September 1976; Mexico City, Anglo-Mexican Institute, September - October 1976; Jalapa, Institute of Plastic Arts, October - November 1976; Colombia - Bogota, Museo de Arte Moderno, February 1977; Cali, Museo La Tertulia, 1977; Pereira, Centro de Arte Actual, 1977; Barranquilla, Public Library, 1977, Peru, San Isidro, August - September 1977; Casa de Moral, probably Casa del Moral in Arequipa, October - November 1977; Trujillo, November - December 1977; and Santiago, 1978.
Zürich, Gimpel-Hanover Gallery, Barbara Hepworth - Ben Nicholson: Ein Dialog; Jürg Altherr: Stahl-Konstruktionen, November 1978 - January 1979, another cast exhibited.
Amman, British Council, Jordan National Gallery, 40 Years of British Sculpture, May - June 1981, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Harare, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, September 1982; South Africa, June - July 1983; Yugoslavia, Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art, January 1986; Skopje, Museum of Contemporary Art, February 1986; Zagreb, City Art Gallery, March 1986; Ljubljana, Moderna Galerija, April 1986; Novi Sad, City Museum, May 1986; Turkey, June 1986; Sarajevo, Collegium Artisticum Gallery, December 1986; Athens, British Council Office, September - October 1987; Egypt, February 1988; Gaborone, British Council Office, March - April 1988; Cyprus, Heraklion, May - June 1988; New Zealand, August - September 1989; Manila, Metropolitan Museum, January - February 1990; Ontario, Regional Art and Historical Museum, November - December 1991; Alberta, Red Deer District Museum, January - February 1992; Alberta, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, March - April 1992; Tallinn, Art Museum of Estonia, July - August 1993; Riga, Museum of Western European Art, August - September 1993; Vilnius, Palace of Art, September - October 1993; and Kyiv, British Council Office, November - December 1993.
possibly, Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery, The Charles Rand Penney Collection: Twentieth Century Art, November 1983 - August 1984, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Potsdam, Roland Gibson Art Gallery, October - December 1984; San Jose, Museum of Art, September - November 1985; Wheeling, Stifel Fine Arts Center, January - March 1986; Baton Rouge, Louisiana Arts and Science Center, April - May 1986; Tampa, Museum, June - July 1986; Little Rock, Arkansas Arts Center, August - September 1986; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Art Center, November - December 1986; Jackson, Mississippi Museum of Art, January - February 1987; Spokane, Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum, June - July 1987; Oshkosh, Paine Art Center, September - November 1987; Beaumont, Art Museum, January - February 1988; and Shreveport, Meadows Museum, March - May 1988.
Sault Ste. Marie, Art Gallery of Algoma, Barbara Hepworth: The Art Gallery of Ontario Collection, another cast exhibited, August - September 1991; Thunder Bay, Art Gallery, October - November 1991; Chatham, Cultural Centre, Thames Art Gallery, December 1991-January 1992; St. Catharines, Rodman Hall Arts Centre, February - March 1992; and Cobourg, Art Gallery of Northumberland, April - May 1992.
Liverpool, Tate, Barbara Hepworth: A Retrospective, September - December 1994, pp. 139, 164, no. 57, another cast illustrated: this exhibition travelled to New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, February - April 1995; and Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, May - August 1995.
St Petersburg, British Council, The Russian Museum, A Changing World: 50 Years of Sculpture from the British Council Collection, October - November 1994, another cast exhibited: this exhibition travelled to Moscow, New Tretyakov Museum, April - May 1995; Prague, Riding Hall, Prague Castle, June - September 1995; Casablanca, Espace Wafabank, January - March 1996; and Essen, Folkwang Museum, April - June 1996.

Further Details

We are very grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her assistance with the cataloguing apparatus for this work. Dr Sophie Bowness is preparing the revised catalogue raisonné of Hepworth's sculpture.