Offer Waterman
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Notable Sales
  • News
  • Publications
  • About
  • Contact
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

St Ives

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Barbara Hepworth, Three Groups on a White and Yellow Ground, 1949

Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975

Three Groups on a White and Yellow Ground, 1949
oil and pencil on masonite
18 x 22 inches
45.7 x 55.9 cm
signed and dated and signed again on the reverse
In the early years of World War II, restrictions on Barbara Hepworth's time, materials and studio space lead her to take up drawing as both a practical creative outlet and...
Read more
In the early years of World War II, restrictions on Barbara Hepworth's time, materials and studio space lead her to take up drawing as both a practical creative outlet and a means to generate a source of income. Even as the privations of war began to lift, her drawing practice gained further momentum. Although initially Hepworth concentrated on producing abstract geometric compositions, in 1947 she returned to the subject of the human body, beginning work on two important series of figurative drawings concurrently; her ‘hospital drawings’ (1947 – 49) and a series (to which the present work belongs) of models and dancers in the nude (1947 – 51).
While it was not unusual for Hepworth to work from a single model, she was fascinated by relationships between figures, as we bear witness to here, where three different poses adopted by a male and a female model in close relation to each other, have been recorded side by side across the board. As opposed to the fixed, premeditated poses that Hepworth had asked her models to assume for her life drawings in the 1920s, at this time she would ‘usually get dancers as models and ask them to move about, to limber up, to relax, and to move and move until I know them all the way round.’ 1
Reminiscent of Rodin’s Cambodian dancers and the ‘Three Graces’ of Botticelli’s Primavera, c.1480, the present work conveys a sense of fluid movement and intimacy between the figures. The rhythm of the figures’ movements are echoed in the rhythmic line of Hepworth's drawing style. Not only do the outlines of the two figures overlap in areas such as the legs and feet, but there is also a doubling or blurring of these lines, suggesting the trace of the figure’s actions.
Though Hepworth herself often referred to these works on board as drawings, they may more accurately be described as paintings, albeit of a unique kind. Hepworth was in the habit of preparing her boards with gesso, which she would apply using a brush and then scrape back, possibly with a razor blade, before scumbling with oil or gouache in muted colours (here, white, yellow and blue). This method, which was altogether more sculptural than painterly, created a textured, organic-feeling surface with ‘a particular kind of ‘bite’’ upon which Hepworth would draw in pencil, something she likened to ‘incising on slate’ and the painted surface would often be scraped or rubbed back as the drawing proceeded.2 3

1 The artist cited in Alan Wilkinson, The Drawings of Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, Surrey & USA, 2015, p90
2 The artist cited in A. Wilkinson, 2015, ibid, p65
3 Ibid
Close full details

Provenance

Maurice Goldman, London
The Piccadilly Gallery, London
Cecil 'Titi' Blaffer von Fürstenberg, Houston, acquired from the above in May 1985
Thence by descent

Exhibitions

London, Lefevre Gallery, New Sculpture and Drawings by Barbara Hepworth, February 1950, cat no.38

Venice, XXV Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, June – October 1950,

cat no.116

Wakefield, City Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture and Drawings, 1951 Festival of Britain, 19 May – 7 July 1951, cat no.88, touring to:

York, City Art Gallery, 14 July – 12 August 1951

Manchester, City Art Gallery, 24 September – 21 October 1951

London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth, Retrospective Exhibition 1927 – 1954, 8 April – 6 June 1954, cat no.135

Paris, Artcurial Centre d'Art Plastique Contemporain, English Contrasts: Peintres et Sculpteurs Anglais, 1950 – 1960, 27 September – 24 November 1984, p40 illus


Literature

J.P. Hodin, Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur, ‘Barbara Hepworth: Laatste Werk-stukken’,Volume 11, no.4, April 1950

Note: Three Groups on a White and Yellow Ground will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Barbara Hepworth’s drawings and paintings currently being compiled by Dr. Sophie Bowness.
Previous
|
Next
4 
of  16

info@waterman.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7042 3233

Join our mailing list

Join the mailing list
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Modern Slavery Statement
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Offer Waterman
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Interests *

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.