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HEPWORTH BARBARA: (1903-1975) ´ It was such a terrific labour working that stone (& one of my best w
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HEPWORTH BARBARA: (1903-1975) English sculptor. A significant correspondence and archive of photographs relating to Hepworth´s sculpture Cosdon Head (1949) comprising four A.Ls.S., Barbara, ten pages (total), 4to and one written to both sides of a correspondence card, Trewyn Studio, St. Ives, Cornwall, 12th July - 3rd October 1950, all to James Archdale. Hepworth writes in detail regarding her sculpture, and some possible damage caused in transit, as well as her personal life and impending divorce from painter Ben Nicholson -(i) A.L.S., Barbara, one page, 4to, St. Ives, Cornwall, 12th July 1950, to James [Archdale], thanking him for going to so much trouble with the Cosdon Head and informing him that ´The weight is about 2 3/4 cwt. perhaps only 2 1/4 - it rests on a slight wood base which has a turntable set under it & moves quite easily. This enables it to be moved in the light. Both here, & at the Biennale it looked well on a strongly made wood plinth with a dull finish of a warm pale grey colour´.(ii) A lengthy A.L.S., Barbara, five pages (separate leaves), 4to, St. Ives, Cornwall, 13th August (1950), to James Archdale (´Dear Jim´). Hepworth apologises for the delay in writing to Archdale, explaining that his letter had arrived ´just at the moment when I was in a state of collapse´ and adding ´my personal difficulties reached a peak as Ben arrived in St. Ives with Mrs. Littler [Rhoda Littler, an artist, and Nicholson´s lover at the time] & is living with her here. In a small town like this it produced so many problems quite apart from the horrid divorce proceedings which I have had to set going, the difficult situation for the children & the fact that Ben´s & my life has been so interwoven professionally for 20 years that one hardly knows how to cope with it´, further writing of how ´desperately upset´ she feels that some damage may have occurred to the Cosdon Head, remarking ´If you remember the back of the head was a solid block of calcite crystals - I worked the matrix down to a level surface but it was a scarred & discoloured surface. If the surfaces have become broken or chipped in any way it can only be inadequate packing on the part of the packers in London (if as you say your unpackers are blameless) & as it was completely in order when my assistant went up to the Tate Gallery to inspect it on its return from the Venice Biennale. He cleaned it & reported to me that it was in a perfect state......The point that worries me considerably is why was I not informed by the Art Gallery the moment it arrived & was found damaged. I am deeply grieved that a work which can go to Venice & back in safety should be hurt between London & Birmingham & of course no insurance in the world compensates the artist.....I would suggest dealing with it in this way. 1) Report to the Insurance people. 2) Establish the damage by comparison with the set of photos I sent you. 3) Have it very carefully packed & sent by Goods here to me so that I can assess the cost of the damage & repairs if repair is possible. Forgive me for saying this - but I´m not convinced that your unpackers are blameless. I fear they may have tried to lift it by brute strength (which is impossible as it is slippery) & that it may have fallen. The British Council packed it several times - always lifting it in a net´.(iii) A.L.S., Barbara, to both sides of a printed correspondence card, St. Ives, Cornwall, 16th August (1950), to James Archdale (´Dear Jim´), apologising for both having sent him such a dreary letter and for the trouble he has been put to with the Cosdon Head, remarking ´It was such a terrific labour working that stone (& one of my best works) I could not bear to think of the damage. Perhaps it is not so serious?´.(iv) A.L.S., Barbara, two pages, 4to, St. Ives, Cornwall, 3rd October (1950), to James Archdale (´Dear Jim´). Hepworth states that the photographs of the Cosdon Head have just arrived and that she can not detct any damage at all, explaining ´The white mark on the nose is calcite crystal & was always there....& the back of the Head was full of calcite crystals or their pockets. This is a metamorphic stone & the back was the matrix. The fine white lines are innate in the rock. This stone took 9 1/2 solid weeks carving - it is worse than flint to carve. If you object to the white marks I would suggest that they are tinted a neutral colour to tone it down, but on no account should the one on the nose be touched as it is part of the form & expression. It would be disastrous to alter it. The sculpture was just like this when you saw it at Carbis Bay & Lefevre´.Together with five different vintage signed 6.5 x 8 studio photographs by Hepworth, each of the images depicting the Cosdon Head from various angles, four of them signed (´Barbara Hepworth´) in ink to the versos, further adding the title and date of the sculpture in her hand, as well as identifying the stone (´Armenian blue marble´), and the fifth signed to the verso in pencil by Hepworth with her initials, and also adding St Ives in her hand beneath. Also including a second example of one of the photographs with a printed caption to the verso relating to its entry in the Venice Biennale of 1950.Further including a T.L.S. on behalf of Dr. Mary Woodall, Keeper of the City Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, one page, 4to, Birmingham, 11th October 1951, to James Archdale, on the printed stationery of the Department of Art. Woodall informs her correspondent that she has sent him all of the photographs they had of the Cosdon Head, declaring ´It is a most confusing affair altogether´ and further remarking ´Personally, I have a feeling that our photographs are much better quality than Barbara Hepworth´s and therefore show the defects in more detail´. Accompanied by the photographs referred to, being four original 6 x 8 studio photographs showing the Cosdon Head from different angles, each with the copyright stamp of the City of Birmingham to the versos.An excellent archive of letters and photographs relating to one of Hepworth´s works (which the scupltor herslf describes as one of her best pieces). VG, 15The Cosdon Head was one of the first works created by Hepworth at her Trewyn Studio and after being entered at the Venice Biennale it was gifted to the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery by James Archdale in 1951. The Cosdon Head also formed part of an exhibition entitled Sculpture of the Twentieth Century which toured between the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in America between 1952-53.
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HEPWORTH BARBARA: (1903-1975) English sculptor. A significant correspondence and archive of photographs relating to Hepworth´s sculpture Cosdon Head (1949) comprising four A.Ls.S., Barbara, ten pages (total), 4to and one written to both sides of a correspondence card, Trewyn Studio, St. Ives, Cornwall, 12th July - 3rd October 1950, all to James Archdale. Hepworth writes in detail regarding her sculpture, and some possible damage caused in transit, as well as her personal life and impending divorce from painter Ben Nicholson -(i) A.L.S., Barbara, one page, 4to, St. Ives, Cornwall, 12th July 1950, to James [Archdale], thanking him for going to so much trouble with the Cosdon Head and informing him that ´The weight is about 2 3/4 cwt. perhaps only 2 1/4 - it rests on a slight wood base which has a turntable set under it & moves quite easily. This enables it to be moved in the light. Both here, & at the Biennale it looked well on a strongly made wood plinth with a dull finish of a warm pale grey colour´.(ii) A lengthy A.L.S., Barbara, five pages (separate leaves), 4to, St. Ives, Cornwall, 13th August (1950), to James Archdale (´Dear Jim´). Hepworth apologises for the delay in writing to Archdale, explaining that his letter had arrived ´just at the moment when I was in a state of collapse´ and adding ´my personal difficulties reached a peak as Ben arrived in St. Ives with Mrs. Littler [Rhoda Littler, an artist, and Nicholson´s lover at the time] & is living with her here. In a small town like this it produced so many problems quite apart from the horrid divorce proceedings which I have had to set going, the difficult situation for the children & the fact that Ben´s & my life has been so interwoven professionally for 20 years that one hardly knows how to cope with it´, further writing of how ´desperately upset´ she feels that some damage may have occurred to the Cosdon Head, remarking ´If you remember the back of the head was a solid block of calcite crystals - I worked the matrix down to a level surface but it was a scarred & discoloured surface. If the surfaces have become broken or chipped in any way it can only be inadequate packing on the part of the packers in London (if as you say your unpackers are blameless) & as it was completely in order when my assistant went up to the Tate Gallery to inspect it on its return from the Venice Biennale. He cleaned it & reported to me that it was in a perfect state......The point that worries me considerably is why was I not informed by the Art Gallery the moment it arrived & was found damaged. I am deeply grieved that a work which can go to Venice & back in safety should be hurt between London & Birmingham & of course no insurance in the world compensates the artist.....I would suggest dealing with it in this way. 1) Report to the Insurance people. 2) Establish the damage by comparison with the set of photos I sent you. 3) Have it very carefully packed & sent by Goods here to me so that I can assess the cost of the damage & repairs if repair is possible. Forgive me for saying this - but I´m not convinced that your unpackers are blameless. I fear they may have tried to lift it by brute strength (which is impossible as it is slippery) & that it may have fallen. The British Council packed it several times - always lifting it in a net´.(iii) A.L.S., Barbara, to both sides of a printed correspondence card, St. Ives, Cornwall, 16th August (1950), to James Archdale (´Dear Jim´), apologising for both having sent him such a dreary letter and for the trouble he has been put to with the Cosdon Head, remarking ´It was such a terrific labour working that stone (& one of my best works) I could not bear to think of the damage. Perhaps it is not so serious?´.(iv) A.L.S., Barbara, two pages, 4to, St. Ives, Cornwall, 3rd October (1950), to James Archdale (´Dear Jim´). Hepworth states that the photographs of the Cosdon Head have just arrived and that she can not detct any damage at all, explaining ´The white mark on the nose is calcite crystal & was always there....& the back of the Head was full of calcite crystals or their pockets. This is a metamorphic stone & the back was the matrix. The fine white lines are innate in the rock. This stone took 9 1/2 solid weeks carving - it is worse than flint to carve. If you object to the white marks I would suggest that they are tinted a neutral colour to tone it down, but on no account should the one on the nose be touched as it is part of the form & expression. It would be disastrous to alter it. The sculpture was just like this when you saw it at Carbis Bay & Lefevre´.Together with five different vintage signed 6.5 x 8 studio photographs by Hepworth, each of the images depicting the Cosdon Head from various angles, four of them signed (´Barbara Hepworth´) in ink to the versos, further adding the title and date of the sculpture in her hand, as well as identifying the stone (´Armenian blue marble´), and the fifth signed to the verso in pencil by Hepworth with her initials, and also adding St Ives in her hand beneath. Also including a second example of one of the photographs with a printed caption to the verso relating to its entry in the Venice Biennale of 1950.Further including a T.L.S. on behalf of Dr. Mary Woodall, Keeper of the City Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, one page, 4to, Birmingham, 11th October 1951, to James Archdale, on the printed stationery of the Department of Art. Woodall informs her correspondent that she has sent him all of the photographs they had of the Cosdon Head, declaring ´It is a most confusing affair altogether´ and further remarking ´Personally, I have a feeling that our photographs are much better quality than Barbara Hepworth´s and therefore show the defects in more detail´. Accompanied by the photographs referred to, being four original 6 x 8 studio photographs showing the Cosdon Head from different angles, each with the copyright stamp of the City of Birmingham to the versos.An excellent archive of letters and photographs relating to one of Hepworth´s works (which the scupltor herslf describes as one of her best pieces). VG, 15The Cosdon Head was one of the first works created by Hepworth at her Trewyn Studio and after being entered at the Venice Biennale it was gifted to the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery by James Archdale in 1951. The Cosdon Head also formed part of an exhibition entitled Sculpture of the Twentieth Century which toured between the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in America between 1952-53.
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