Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
People often mention how clear the light is in West Cornwall, and I would be the first to agree that there’s a clarity here that isn’t found everywhere.
This attracted artists from far and wide, and the St. Ives colony became so well known that it became a magnet for even more artists.
I would argue though that artists came here not just for the quality of light, but also for the quality of life as well, and one of those artists was Barbara Hepworth, a sculptor, who was born in Wakefield in 1903.
If you’ve seen any of her work you might think it’s not unlike the work of Henry Moore, so when you realise that they struck up a friendship at Leeds School of Art which was to last for many years, it would be easy to see why there are so many similarities.
In 1925 she married another sculptor, John Skeaping, but it was her second marriage to painter, Ben Nicholson, in 1938 that brought her to St. Ives.
I have to admit that I’ve often felt uneasy as to why so many artists found their way to St. Ives while the rest of the country were either landing on the Beaches of Normandy, battling for Britain above the Straits of Dover, or just trying to survive The Blitz – but I digress.
Barbara Hepworth’s second marriage didn’t last indefinitely either, but she was at least able to find solace at Trewyn Studio, where she carried on her work from 1949 until a fire ended her career – and her life – in 1975.
Originally posted 2017-10-08 17:35:21.
