Sculptor who enjoyed the artistic life in St Ives
Born: 1903. Died: 1975
Laid to rest: Longstone cemetery, St Ives
Born in 1903 in Yorkshire, Barbara Hepworth trained as a sculptor at Leeds School of Art between 1921-24, lived, worked and exhibited in London and Rome until 1939 when she and her second husband, Ben Nicholson, moved to Carbis Bay with her 4 young children (Paul, whose father was Barbara's first husband, Paul Skeaping, and triplets who were born in 1934) to stay with friends.
Barbara and Ben moved to Chy-an-Kerris, a property in Carbis Bay, in 1942, where she had her own studio, and she purchased the house that is now the Barbara Hepworth Musuem, Trewyn Studio, in 1949, where she lived from 1951 onwards, after her divorce from Ben Nicholson. Well-known in the modernist artistic community for many years, Barbara Hepworth became well-known on the international stage after her exhibit at the Grand Prix in Sao Paulo in 1959 and widespread acclaim of her work continued up to and after her death in 1975.
In her later years, Barbara suffered from the symptoms of advancing lung cancer, but she perished in a fire which took hold at her studio in St Ives. One of her sculptures can be enjoyed at the Longstone Cemetery, where she is buried: ascending form (Gloria) created in 1958. More information about her life and works can be found at: www.tate.org.uk/hepworth