Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Sells For $8.3 Million At Christie's London

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture with Colour (Eos) from 1946, sold for £6.19 million ($8.3 million) at Christie's London, leading the auction house's modern British and Irish art evening sale. This price fell within its estimated range of £5 million to £8 million and set a new auction record for a unique work by the British artist. The piece, carved from a single block of pale Hopton Wood stone, is named after the Greek goddess of dawn.

Two additional Hepworth sculptures also achieved significant results. Figure (Sunion), created in 1960, fetched £4.12 million ($5.5 million), while Sea Form (Porthmeor), from 1958, realized £1.54 million ($2.1 million). Combined, these three works accounted for more than half of the evening's total of £23.1 million ($30.8 million). According to Christie's, the sale's overall performance marked a 30 percent increase compared to the equivalent auction held last year.

Hepworth was not the only artist to set new records at the sale. Walter Sickert's The Horses of St Mark's, Venice ( 1901 ) achieved £550,400 ($734,000) after a six-minute bidding process, establishing a new auction high for the painter. Further records were set for Gluck, whose Chromatic ( 1932 ) sold for £499,200 ($665,000); Euan Uglow's Pyramid ( 1993–96 ) reached £793,600 ($1.06 million); and Eduardo Paolozzi's 9XSR ( 1958 ) brought in £204,800 ($273,000).

Hepworth created Sculpture with Colour (Eos) seven years after relocating to Cornwall in 1939, where the local coastline, cliffs, and ancient stones significantly influenced her artistic practice. The sculpture exemplifies her explorations into adding color to carved forms, a technique that became central to her work. Earlier this year, the piece was featured in“Hepworth in Colour” at London's Courtauld Gallery, an exhibition focusing on this lesser-known aspect of her career. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1903, Hepworth lived most of her adult life in St Ives, Cornwall, working from Trewyn Studio from 1949 until her death in 1975. Her former studio now houses the Barbara Hepworth Museum, operated by Tate.

This sale contributed to Christie's running total for its October 20th- and 21st-century auctions in London, which now stands at £278.6 million ($371.4 million). Additional sales are scheduled in Paris later this week.

We previously reported:

A Barbara Hepworth sculpture featured in a 1948 Lee Miller photograph for American Vogue will be auctioned at Christie's for an estimated $6.6M–$10.5M.

An ancient Roman emperor's torso sold for $34.3 million at Sotheby's, setting a new auction record for a Roman antiquity after a 14-minute bidding war.

Sotheby's London's contemporary art sale on Thursday brought in $61.1 million, led by a $12.9 million Willem de Kooning painting.

Source: ARTnews

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