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Lot 28AR,TP,○
Dame Barbara Hepworth(British, 1903-1975)Winged Figure I 162.5 cm. (64 in.) high (including the base) Conceived in 1957 and fabricated in 1963, this work is number 2 from the edition of 3
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19 November 2025, 15:00 GMT
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Dame Barbara Hepworth (British, 1903-1975)
Winged Figure I
bronze with a brown patina, Isopon and brass wire on an integral concrete base
162.5 cm. (64 in.) high (including the base)
Conceived in 1957 and fabricated in 1963, this work is number 2 from the edition of 3
bronze with a brown patina, Isopon and brass wire on an integral concrete base
162.5 cm. (64 in.) high (including the base)
Conceived in 1957 and fabricated in 1963, this work is number 2 from the edition of 3
Footnotes
Provenance
Acquired directly from the Artist in September 1968
Exhibited
London, O'Hana Gallery, Dimensions: British Abstract Art 1948-1957, December 1957, cat.no.29 (another version, as Winged Figure)
London, Gimpel Fils, Recent Works by Barbara Hepworth, June 1958, cat.no.6 (another version)
Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds Centenary Festival, Modern Sculpture: Kenneth Armitage, Ralph Brown, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Leslie Thornton, 8 October-5 November 1958, cat.no.36 (another version)
St Ives, Guildhall, Library and Parish Church, Barbara Hepworth, 23 September-5 October 1968 (another version)
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Bronzes, 5 May-29 June 1979, cat.no.16 (ill. another version)
London, Piano Nobile, Barbara Hepworth: Strings, 6 February-2 May 2025, cat.no.14 (col.ill., this version)
Literature
Josef Paul Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, London, 1961, cat.no.228, p.169 (ill.b&w, another version)
Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens, Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives, Tate, London, 1999, pp.163, 168, 172, 205, 207
Sophie Bowness (ed.) Barbara Hepworth: The Plasters, The Gift to Wakefield, Lund Humphries in association with The Hepworth Wakefield, Farnham and Wakefield, 2011, pp.72, 94, 124, fig.71 (ill.b&w, another version)
Eleanor Clayton, Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life, Thames & Hudson, London, 2021, p.216
We are grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her kind assistance with the cataloguing apparatus for the present work, which will feature in her forthcoming revised catalogue raisonné of the Artist's sculpture as cat.no.BH228.
Few of Hepworth's forms are as iconic as Winged Figure I. The form's status as one of the most instantly recognisable sculptures within Hepworth's oeuvre was cemented by her translation of Winged Figure I for her major commission for the John Lewis Partnership, a near six-metre version titled Winged Figure. Unveiled in 1963 and sited on the east façade of the Partnership's Oxford Street store, Winged Figure accelerated Hepworth's trajectory into the canon of the 20th Century's greatest sculptors and remains a cultural touchstone for many of the half a million people who see it each and every day.
In May of 1961 the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, O.B. Miller, wrote to Hepworth inviting her to design a sculpture for the company's newly rebuilt headquarters. Hepworth was not the first artist approached, but rather the seventh. And Winged Figure was not her first proposal submitted, but her second. In total nine sculptural commissions were considered by Miller, who was resolute in his ambition that the project should express 'the idea of common ownership and common interest in a partnership of thousands of workers "of which the purpose is to increase the happiness of its own members while giving good service to the community"' (Letter to Hepworth, 24 May 1961, John Lewis Partnership Archive Collection, Stevenage). Hepworth accepted the commission promptly, finding that this brief aligned with her own intent as an artist. Her initial idea for the site was for a three-part stringed relief sculpture (see Maquette, Three Forms in Echelon, 1961, BH306) – but to Hepworth's dismay, this proposal was rejected by Miller on the basis that he felt it would not integrate successfully with the building, nor would it be considered an outstanding example of her own work.
The proposal of revisiting an earlier sculpture was raised by Miller, and Hepworth agreed that Winged Figure I would suit, adding that 'it is an idea which I have long wanted to carry out on a bigger scale' (Letter to Miller, 25 October 1961). Miller accepted this proposal almost immediately and, following an 18-month fabrication period, the work was finally unveiled on the 23rd of April 1963. On this occasion, Hepworth summarised her ambition for the project, which both tallies with the Partnership's brief of common interest and ownership and elaborates on how we can interpret her intent for the original form:
'I think one of our universal dreams is to move in air and water without the resistance of our human legs. I wanted to evoke this sensation of freedom. If the Winged Figure in Oxford Street gives people a sense of being airborne in rain and sunlight and nightlight I will be very happy' (The Gazette of the John Lewis Partnership, 27 April 1963, pp.304-5, an account of the installation).
Winged Figure I was conceived by Hepworth in 1957. The work draws together many of the artist's principal concerns: the universal dream of weightlessness, humanity's place in nature, the Cornish landscape, flight, futurism, and the permanence of spirit. This multitude of themes is succinctly communicated by her signature sculptural devices: abstraction of the figure, spatial relationships mapped with wires, piercing the form, her radical embrace of new materials, and her mastery over them. In many ways, Winged Figure I is emblematic of Hepworth's sculptural output from across the 1950s—a decade in which she was emboldened to develop the core principles she had established in her pre-war output at the forefront of British Modernism, shaped by her now permanent rooting in the Cornish town of St Ives and her enthusiasm for the post-war spirit of renewal and progress. It is also representative of a move towards unrestricted ambition for Hepworth, in terms of both the physical scale of her work and its social reach.
The selection of Winged Figure I for the John Lewis commission was based on the idea that the work should be an outstanding example of her output. It is perhaps its prominent display of two devices considered cornerstones of Hepworth's practice that most qualify it as such: stringing and piercing the form.
In the mid-1950s Hepworth produced some of her most complex strung arrangements, with works such as the Orpheus series of 1956 (BH221-3, a 20-inch version of which sold in these rooms, 18 June 2025 for £952,900) and the Stringed Figure (Curlew) series (also of 1956, BH224-BH225B). In such works, Hepworth evolved her use of stringing—a device she had developed from the late 1930s onwards in sync with Henry Moore and Naum Gabo—into a highly personal language. This language drew together the principles of mathematics with a perception that strings could represent the tensions she felt between humanity and nature, coupled with sequencing and movement aligned with her interest in music and dance.
The stringing arrangements in these series, as well as in Winged Figure I, are achieved by the specific placement of the work's edges in relation to each other. In Winged Figure I, the tip of the left-hand wing tilts subtly forward whilst the tip of the right-hand wing recedes, with the specific point of their intersection sitting at the work's heart. As the wires cross the body sequentially, the illusion of a spiralling plane within the form—or 'twist' as Hepworth termed the effect—is created.
The result is so elegant that it lures one to consider it simple to achieve, but this is not the case. Several steps of practice and refinement were taken before arriving at the final arrangement. First a rough prototype was created in sheet metal and string (Working Model for Maquette for Winged Figure, 1957, Collection of The Hepworth, Wakefield), followed by a maquette stage at 22 inches in brass, Isopon and string (Maquette for Winged Figure, 1957, BH227), before execution on the present large scale.
Into the body, Hepworth has cut out two irregular forms, one ovoid to the left and one elliptical to the right. These serve several purposes. They act to define wings from torso, introduce a sense of weightlessness, and, perhaps most fundamentally, allow the viewer to peer through the work—inviting consideration not just of the sculpture itself, but of what lies beyond it. In this way, the perception of the work becomes inseparable from its environment – a point of specific inspiration for Hepworth for its translation to commission:
"The slant of this great wall, tipped slightly towards Oxford Street and Marble Arch was a great help to me. It allowed my imagination to develop freely my idea of the forms of air, wind, sea and space of Cornwall (where I live) and let this sculpture alight in Oxford Street where it still looks free enough to fly straight up to Marble Arch and home again!" (Barbara Hepworth, Typescript by Barbara Hepworth relating to her sculpture 'Winged Figure', 4 July 1963, Tate Archive)
While Winged Figure I is in many respects typical of Hepworth's work, it also marks a radical departure. British sculpture in the 1950s had seen the rise of a new wave of young artists grouped under the term 'Geometry of Fear'. In painting, a movement of British Constructivism re-examined what it meant to be an abstract artist. Hepworth did not fall into either camp, nor was she ever a follower of new movements, but she was invigorated by the progress of the age. It is interesting to note here that before Hepworth showed Winged Figure I at her own exhibition at Gimpel Fils in 1958, she loaned a version to the young upstart curator Lawrence Alloway for his exhibition Dimensions—a survey of all that was vital and cutting-edge in recent British abstraction.
The radicality of Winged Figure I lies in its materiality. The body of the work is formed from a sheet of cut and curved bronze, which subtly tapers towards the upstretched wings. To achieve this form, Hepworth employed a process of 'cold rolling', which involved repeatedly running wood over the metal to make it curl effectively, refraining from heat. Two further curved panels of bronze with a high copper content were then riveted to the body to emphasise the wings and reinforce the form's upward energy. They also recall the curved timbers of a boat's hull—a reference made even more palpable in the John Lewis version.
Across the surface, Hepworth applied a layer of Isopon, an industrial material designed for boat and car repairs. She relished using such 'non-artistic' materials: carved beach pebbles, fishermen's twine, and, in this case, mechanic's Isopon. This material offered her a most exciting prospect. A year earlier Hepworth had begun casting in bronze developing a method of applying plaster over sheet metal which she found most satisfactory as it allowed her to file, carve and chisel the surface. Isopon could be manipulated in the same manner but unlike plaster it is robust and so did not need to be cast to bronze. As such this new method captured with permanence the impulse of the artist's hand in action.
Across the front of the present form the application of Isopon is in radial 'brush strokes', emphasising the cave like hollow at the centre of the form, and feathered at the right-hand wing and upper section, which encourages an avian or angelic interpretation. At the back of the form, the strokes extend out from a central line which forms the 'spine' of the figure, and towards the edge of each wing the tone is subtly but noticeably darker — thought to be achieved by the introduction of a pigment — which serves to highlight the depth of the curve.
For the stringing of this series of works Hepworth generally used a brass wire darkly patinated, and the methodology varies across the editions. This Winged Figure I is believed to be unique in this regard as the only one from the edition in which the stringing is formed of one single wire threaded back and forth, as opposed to a sequence of individual wires. In addition, Hepworth introduced struts to bridge the void — not structurally necessary, but assertively geometric — which, along with the arrangement of wires, cast shadows that animate the surface throughout the day. Hepworth stressed that with this form she 'wanted to capture the greatest variety of light and shadow, from morning sun, afternoon reflected light and night floodlighting, so that visually the sculpture never remained static.' (Barbara Hepworth, Typescript by Barbara Hepworth relating to her sculpture 'Winged Figure', 4 July 1963, Tate Archive)
The combination of the materials selected by Hepworth serve two further functions. Firstly, they combine to achieve a refined tonality to the work — the darkly patinated and coppery bronze elements sit in rich contrast, as do the darkened wires picked out against the silvery surface, a consideration which was of great importance to Hepworth. Secondly, the process of construction is laid bare in a mechanical manner. Whilst Hepworth stated specifically that the Cornish landscape had influenced the present work, and it is true that coves and headlands can be traced along its outline, that the hollow recalls a cave, and that the tone is that of seafoam against granite and slate — the form is not a particularly natural entity. Hepworth was equally fascinated by the pioneering fronts of science and endeavour. Winged Figure I dates to the year Sputnik 1 launched, becoming the first man made object to exit our atmosphere, a development that Hepworth took much interest in. When considered against the backdrop of this huge expansion of the world as we knew it, with its overtones of flight and its otherworldly presence — Winged Figure I perhaps also speaks to Hepworth grappling with how her sculpture will transcend in the new society of the future.
Early in 1962, following eventual agreement of the proposal for the large Winged Figure for John Lewis, Hepworth set about production of a prototype for the form (now on prominent display at The Hepworth, Wakefield). The form of Winged Figure I was scaled up to almost six metres in height, initially as a timber framework, at which stage she could adjust the perspective of the form so that it remained correct when viewed from street level. Once satisfied with the adjustments, the frame was replaced with aluminium lengths, and a skin of sheet metal was added which Hepworth textured with Isopon. In place of wires, ten intersecting metal rods were employed. Production of the prototype spanned from February to August that year, when Hepworth gave a party to the St Ives community, with the sculpture lit by floodlight for the occasion. On the 30th of August, the prototype was transported along the narrow streets of St Ives and then on to the Morris Singer foundry in Walthamstow, where it was cast into aluminium in four parts, which were joined together before its eventual installation at the Oxford Street site in April of the following year. In summary Hepworth stated:
"The whole project of the Winged Figure for Oxford Street, on the wall of the new John Lewis building, was for me extremely interesting and enjoyable. It was such a challenge to create the right sort of sculpture for this unusual position and to make the forms rise above the immense hurly-burly of Oxford Street, as well as to make the concept remain calm above the immense stream of traffic." (Barbara Hepworth, Typescript by Barbara Hepworth relating to her sculpture 'Winged Figure', 4 July 1963, Tate Archive)
The present work is number 2 from an edition of 3. Number 1 from the edition is in the collection of the Artizon Museum, Japan, and number 3 remains under the ownership of the artist's estate and is currently on long-term loan to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. There is one further large-scale variation on this theme, standing five centimetres taller, titled Winged Figure II (1957, BH229), which is in the collection of the McNay Art Museum, Texas, U.S.A. Each of these versions are unique due to variations in the application and tone of the Isopon and the placement and number of central struts employed. None of these large-scale versions of the form remain in private collections, nor have they previously been offered at auction.
This version of Winged Figure I was acquired directly from Hepworth in September 1968 by St Martin's College, Lancaster — a purchase spearheaded by the college's principal, Dr Hugh Pollard. Anticipating the arrival of the work, Pollard wrote to Hepworth on the 16th of September 1968 stating:
"We think it will look magnificent on one of the lawns in the centre of the college, and we hope to place it in a position where almost every student, out of necessity, will pass it daily. We are tremendously excited at the thought of its arrival." (Letter, 16 September 1966, Tate Archive)
The work's initial siting was relatively short-lived, as the wires did not withstand the wind stress, and the piece had to be brought back to Hepworth's studio in 1974 for repair. Upon its return to St Martin's, it was located inside at Hepworth's suggestion: "It would look very good at the top of a staircase, or against a very big window with the light playing on it." (Letter, 16 May 1974, Tate Archive)
In 2007, St Martin's College was one of three educational establishments that merged to form the University of Cumbria. The proceeds of this lot will be directed towards furthering the vision and mission of the University of Cumbria, which are set out at https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/t2030/.
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