Barbara Hepworth’s former school in Wakefield, Yorkshire is selling two sculptures by the British artist in a bid to raise more than £1m. One work was bought for the opening of a new gym in 1959 and the other was created especially for a head teacher with whom Hepworth became friends upon her retirement in 1973.
Hepworth, who attended Wakefield Girls High School from the age of six, leaving aged 17 in 1920, was encouraged to pursue her artistic talents by her teachers there, famously being allowed to miss sports classes to concentrate on her art.
Hepworth’s love of sculpture was first ignited when her former head teacher Miss McCroben presented a slideshow of Egyptian sculpture to her class. Hepworth later recalled: “I remembered sitting quite rigid... both sculpture and architecture seem to exert some kind of special compulsion when thrown up on the screen.”
McCroben also helped Hepworth sit her scholarship for the Leeds School of Art and arranged lodgings for the artist when she moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art. Hepworth later paid tribute to her former head teacher, saying: “I shall never forget the joy of going to school and the gorgeous smell of the paint I was allowed to use, nor the inspiration and help the headmistress, Miss McCroben, gave me.”
Forms in Movement (Galliard), which was created in 1956 and represents one of the first times Hepworth used sheet metal in her work, was sold at a discounted rate to the school. It is expected to sell for between £250,000 and £350,000. The marble sculpture Quiet Form (1973) was commissioned by the parent teacher association as a gift for the then head teacher Miss Knott. She donated the work, estimated to sell for £500,000 to £700,000, back to the school 30 years later.
John McLeod, a spokesman for the governors of the school, says the money raised will help other pupils achieve their potential. “As Hepworth’s market prices have rocketed, so have the costs of insurance and security. While this means that it is hard to justify devoting valuable—and limited—school resources to insurance costs, it also means that we have the unexpected opportunity to release significant funds, which can be used to afford other students just the kind of special opportunities Barbara Hepworth enjoyed through bursaries,” he says.
The works are due to be auctioned at Sotheby’s London on 13 June.