Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), Oval Sculpture

Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
Oval Sculpture
polished bronze, on a wooden base
15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) wide
Conceived in 1943 and cast in 1959. This work is cast number 4, the artist's cast, from an edition of 4.
This work is recorded as BH 121 C.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF THE LATE LADY PATRICIA LOUSADA
Sir Anthony Lousada (1907-1994) was a prominent figure in the art world during the post-war years of the 20th Century. As a partner at the legal firm, Stephenson Harwood between 1935-73, he came to represent the outstanding British artists of the day, including Barbara Hepworth; her partner, Ben Nicholson; John Piper, and John Hubbard. His numerous honorary appointments at The Royal College of Art (including Treasurer (1967-72) and Chairman (1972-79)); and at Tate, where he served on the Board of Trustees from 1952, eventually being appointed as Chairman of Trustees (1967-69) and remaining Chairman of the Friends until 1977, led to the recognition of his long service to the arts with a Knighthood in 1975.
As a boy, his father, Julian introduced him to the artists of the early 20th Century, which formed his own collection. Among them J.D. Fergusson, who painted Anthony’s mother in 1915 in a portrait titled Complexity, while he was still a child. Fergusson’s Fruit in Bowl was inherited by Sir Anthony and would have been acquired directly from the artist around the same time (see lot 30). A lifetime of collecting followed his early experience and like his father before him, he became close friends with many of the artists that he admired.
Sir Anthony’s first wife was the renowned stage designer, Jocelyn Herbert whom he married in 1937, until her success led to their divorce two decades later. Soon afterwards in 1961, he met and married Patricia Capalbo (née McBride), an American ballerina.
Lady Lousada (1929-2019) had enjoyed a distinguished career in the ballet, helping to found the Ballet Society, later the New York City Ballet, and dancing in choreographer, George Balanchine’s productions, including his collaboration with Igor Stravinsky of Orpheus and Apollo. As a young woman, her beauty was widely admired in Paul Himmel’s iconic photograph of her as `Botticelli Girl’, taken as she stepped out of the water after swimming at Fire Island, New York. This image was featured in Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man exhibition of portraits at MoMA in 1955. She studied at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris, while modelling and taking up amateur photography before meeting Sir Anthony and moving to London with her two children from her previous marriage.
After their marriage, the Lousadas enjoyed a long and happy union until Sir Anthony’s death in 1994. Their home on Chiswick Mall was a hub for the many friends and artists they loved to entertain, including close friends and neighbours, the painter couple, Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan. Patricia ran a dress agency from the basement in the early days, and began writing recipes which led to another career later in life when she was responsible for introducing American cuisine to London, and writing a number of popular cookery books, such as Pasta Italian Style (1991).
Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture Oval Form (lot 17) was acquired directly from the artist by Sir Anthony. Family legend has it that Sir Anthony and Barbara had enjoyed a pleasant afternoon together in her studio in Cornwall, and she offered him one of her works as a gift. Sir Anthony, emboldened by the many drinks they had taken together, managed - very uncharacteristically - to pluck up the courage to decline the piece she offered and to ask for the present work, which he had admired from the outset. Hepworth happily obliged.