Recent Acquisition

Barbara Hepworth’s portrait sketch of George Henry Butler, 1922

Purchased with financial support from the MLA / V&A Purchase Grant Fund

Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield on January 10th 1903, the eldest daughter of Herbert Raikes and Gertrude Alison Hepworth. At the time, her father worked at County Hall as the Surveyor for the West Riding County Council. In 1909 Barbara started at the Wakefield Girls’ High School where her teachers supported her artistic talents. In 1920 she went on to Leeds School of Art where she met the Castleford born sculptor Henry Moore. They both became the most important British sculptors of the 20th century.

Hepworth drew the sketch of George Henry Butler in the summer of 1922, after she had finished her first year at the Royal College of Art in London. The skills which she acquired at the RCA provided a solid basis for the drawings Barbara Hepworth made throughout her life.

George Henry Butler was born in 1901. In 1922 he was a student at Oxford University. Like the Hepworths, the Butlers had a summer holiday home at Robin Hood’s Bay on the Yorkshire coast. Butler’s father was Chief Constable of Barnsley and a leading Freemason. He was certainly a friend of Barbara Hepworth’s father, who was also a mason. The sitter’s widow remembers that Barbara’s mother asked George Henry to meet Barbara off the London train when she arrived at Robin Hood’s Bay. After this, they met up over the summer holidays. Butler went on to become the Town Clerk in Sheffield Council’s legal offices. He died in 1990.

The Gallery acquires items that reflect the richness of British art from around 1900. We prioritise fine and decorative art objects that are associated with the Wakefield District and the Yorkshire region. We are happy to acknowledge the support of the MLA / V&A Purchase Grant Fund in the acquisition of this item. The Purchase Grant Fund, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, is the only fund which regularly supports purchases for Museums and Galleries in the UK. Each year over 300 applications from some 140 organisations are considered. In the last 125 years, many thousands of objects have been acquired with the Fund’s help.