Seated Female Nude seen from Behind

Artist Barbara Hepworth (English, 1903 - 1975)

Date1949

MediumGraphite on watercolor board prepared with warm gray oil-wash over gesso

DimensionsOverall: 14 11/16 × 10 1/4 inches (37.31 × 26.04 cm)
Framed: 25 1/4 × 19 3/4 × 1 1/4 inches (64.14 × 50.17 × 3.18 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Milton McGreevy

Object number81-30/34

SignedRecto, b.l.corner: "Barbara Hepworth 1949"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

Gallery Label

Barbara Hepworth’s nude, seen from the back, with her head a mere sketch, is twisting and seems poised to stand and move. The figure is modeled in dark tones with white highlights, and feels very solid and weighty like a sculpture. Hepworth, who is renowned for her semi-figural and abstract sculptures in cast bronze and carved stone, focuses, here, on the woman’s strength rather than her sexuality.

Published References

Ross Taggart, “Drawings Collection of Milton McGreevy,” The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 4, no. 6: 54-55.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections, 6th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 223 (repro.).

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 245-246 (repro.).

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