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Lot Essay
Dr. Sophie Bowness will include this work in her forthcoming revised Hepworth catalogue raisonné under the catalogue number BH 176.
Carved in 1951-1952 from West African mahogany, Young Girl is a striking and elegant example of Hepworth’s single forms, its delicate, sinuous shape evoking the subtleties and majesty of the standing human figure. The single standing form was among the most important of Hepworth’s oeuvre and became an archetypal image, as the reclining figure would for Henry Moore. Only a small number of sculptures in Hepworth’s oeuvre feature human facial attributes—the present work depicts a face in profile, while maintaining an overall abstract quality.
“Towards the end of 1952, [Hepworth] was showing once again at Lefevre, thirty drawings and fifteen sculptures, all of which had been carved in the preceding eighteen months. Male and female figures, standing, lying, seated… [A]lmost every shade of human metamorphosis was represented. Some of the sculptures have human features, some just profiles, in others the human element is still more elusive” writes Sally Festing. She describes the present work as “a young girl [who] slides like an arboreal princess, mysteriously from five feet of West African mahogany” (op. cit., pp. 203-204).
In her wood and stone sculptures Hepworth reaffirmed her dedication to the concept of "direct carving," in which she worked the material, tools in hand, on her own. She was equally committed to "truth in materials," the concept that the work should reflect the sculptor's direct response to the inherent qualities of the chosen material. Hepworth stated: "Carving to me is more interesting than modelling because there is an unlimited variety of materials from which to draw inspiration" (quoted in Barbara Hepworth, exh. cat., Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, 2004, p. 91). Working in wood and stone required different approaches to carving. "With wood," she explained to Alan Bowness, "you are always considering the whole growth, which is vertical... In the wood carvings the interior gouging is all done by hand, and no mallet... It has to be rhythmical—one's whole mind and body must be focused on it, otherwise the carving just changes character and direction" (quoted in A. Bowness, ed., The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth, 1960-1969, London, 1971, pp. 8 and 15).
At the time Young Girl was executed, hardwoods such as mahogany became Hepworth’s favorite working material, organic in nature and ideal for creating such large-scale, geomorphic forms. In many ways Hepworth's carvings based on the single figure focus on the color and shape of the material, as much in celebration of the wood as the subject itself.
Carved in 1951-1952 from West African mahogany, Young Girl is a striking and elegant example of Hepworth’s single forms, its delicate, sinuous shape evoking the subtleties and majesty of the standing human figure. The single standing form was among the most important of Hepworth’s oeuvre and became an archetypal image, as the reclining figure would for Henry Moore. Only a small number of sculptures in Hepworth’s oeuvre feature human facial attributes—the present work depicts a face in profile, while maintaining an overall abstract quality.
“Towards the end of 1952, [Hepworth] was showing once again at Lefevre, thirty drawings and fifteen sculptures, all of which had been carved in the preceding eighteen months. Male and female figures, standing, lying, seated… [A]lmost every shade of human metamorphosis was represented. Some of the sculptures have human features, some just profiles, in others the human element is still more elusive” writes Sally Festing. She describes the present work as “a young girl [who] slides like an arboreal princess, mysteriously from five feet of West African mahogany” (op. cit., pp. 203-204).
In her wood and stone sculptures Hepworth reaffirmed her dedication to the concept of "direct carving," in which she worked the material, tools in hand, on her own. She was equally committed to "truth in materials," the concept that the work should reflect the sculptor's direct response to the inherent qualities of the chosen material. Hepworth stated: "Carving to me is more interesting than modelling because there is an unlimited variety of materials from which to draw inspiration" (quoted in Barbara Hepworth, exh. cat., Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, 2004, p. 91). Working in wood and stone required different approaches to carving. "With wood," she explained to Alan Bowness, "you are always considering the whole growth, which is vertical... In the wood carvings the interior gouging is all done by hand, and no mallet... It has to be rhythmical—one's whole mind and body must be focused on it, otherwise the carving just changes character and direction" (quoted in A. Bowness, ed., The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth, 1960-1969, London, 1971, pp. 8 and 15).
At the time Young Girl was executed, hardwoods such as mahogany became Hepworth’s favorite working material, organic in nature and ideal for creating such large-scale, geomorphic forms. In many ways Hepworth's carvings based on the single figure focus on the color and shape of the material, as much in celebration of the wood as the subject itself.