Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden

UK Museums: Barbara Hepworth Museum, St. Ives, Cornwall

Barbara Hepworth Museum, St. Ives

Jake Davies

Barbara Hepworth was without a doubt the preeminent female sculptor from Britain in the twentieth century and certainly among the top female sculptors of the world.

Born in Wakefield in the north of England in 1903. She studied at Leeds School of Art in Leeds in northern England and befriended fellow student Henry Moore at the school. She maintained a friendly rivalry with Henry Moore as their early work shared some stylistic similarity.

Barbara Hepworth Museum, St. Ives, Cornwall. — Barbara Hepworth Museum, St. Ives, Cornwall

Early Life

The two of them were largely responsible for the Modernist Movement in sculpture.

During the Second World War she stayed in Cornwall with her second husband, the painter Ben Nicholson. During and just after the war, St. Ives became a major center of modern art with many European artists fleeing the conflict in Europe.

In 1949 she purchased Trewyn Studio and this is where she lived and produced most of her work until her death in 1975. In accordance with her will Trewyn became the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden in 1976 and has been maintained by the Tate since 1980.

In some ways the interior of the house is like a small museum, there are plenty of smaller pieces on display, but what is most unusual and intriguing are the two studio workshops which have been left almost exactly as they were when Hepworth died.

Blocks of stone waiting to be worked on, unfinished sculptures, tools all over, cans of paint, etc. A little eerie like the Marie Celeste, but able to give an insight in to her working methods. The jewel in the crown however, must be the garden, which is not huge, but is crammed with many of her favorite sculptures.

Access - Getting to the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden

Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden (www.tate.org.uk)
Barnoon Hill
St. Ives
Cornwall TR26 1AD
Tel: 1736 796 226

March to October, open 7 days a week, 10 am to 5 pm

November to February, closed Mondays, 10 am to 4.30 pm

St. Ives Station is the nearest railway station to the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden. Most trains to St. Ives run from St. Erth, which has train services to Penzance and Plymouth.

Many of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures are also on display near her birthplace in Wakefield at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and in Wakefield itself at the Hepworth Wakefield.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Tate Liverpool

Tate St Ives