This work is recorded as BH D 433.

Barbara Hepworth first visited Greece in 1954 at the suggestion of lifelong friend and artist Margaret Gardiner. Following the death of her son Paul a year earlier and recent divorce from Ben Nicholson, Hepworth was struck with grief and depression that affected her life and work immensely. With the intention to aid in her recovery, the visit to islands including Crete, Patmos, Santorini and Mykonos fortuitously became a significant turning point for the artist’s practice.

Hepworth had been fascinated with Greek art and mythology from her early career. On seeing the colours and natural forms of the landscape in person, together with the man-made amphitheatres and carved koré figures, Hepworth was immediately inspired. She documented her travels in note and sketchbooks (later published by J.P. Hodin in 1965). She shares a deeply emotional and reflective experience: examining not only the elements of the physical landscape that she encountered, but also the direct sensation and impact they had upon her. This intertwining theme of the human spirit and place was evident within Hepworth’s 1940s Cornish work and upon returning to the UK, she began to develop a new series of sculptures and painting with a renewed vigour.

Fluid forms in both sculpture and paint were created, often titled with the locations of Greek islands (including the present work: Reclining Form (Mykonos)). The smooth lines in Hepworth’s artwork appear to echo the curves of the human form. The artist comments: ‘Every work in sculpture is…either a figure I see, or a sensation I have, whether in Yorkshire, Cornwall or Greece, or the Mediterranean…I cannot write anything about landscape without writing about the human figure and human spirit inhabiting the landscape. For me, the whole art of sculpture is the fusion of these two elements.’ (B. Hepworth quoted in A Sculptor’s Landscape, 1966, pp. 9-10).

In her sculpture, these beautifully abstracted shapes carved or cast in marble, wood or bronze serenely exist within a space yet are often permeated with hand-carved elements or pierced holes. In opening these forms, Hepworth both creates negative space and draws light through and across each surface, to allow interaction with the landscape in around the entire sculpture. Her drawings and paintings equally draw upon artist’s relationship between landscape and figure. In Reclining Form (Mykonos), Hepworth can be seen to replicate the celebrated limestone houses of the region. Bands of blue and yellow simulate the contrasting colours of the buildings’ rooftops and the island’s sandy beaches, piercing through the bright white background. Amongst the colour, two circles can be seen, balanced and connected by further delicate lines at the lower edge of the board. Linking to the artist’s sculptural practice, these allude to a reclining shape which in turn interacts with the landscape it has been placed in, creating new spaces and forms for the viewer to explore.

We are grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her assistance in cataloguing this work.