Art history's most secretive couple?: Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece at Charleston in Lewes
Charleston's latest exhibition guides us through one of the art world's most fascinating stories...
By
Susan Gray
April 4, 2024
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
Stanley ‘I must have two wives’ Spencer cast a long shadow over the careers of his second wife Patricia Preece and her partner Dorothy Hepworth. Traditionally, focus has fallen on Preece’s deception of her Cookham neighbour, becoming first his model and muse, then his wife, and then gaining financial advantage by obtaining the deeds of his village home. Curator Emily Hill says that, in the years following Preece and Spencer’s marriage in 1937, the famous artist threw shade over his wife and her lover’s reputation, saying they were deceitful, and that he had never even seen Preece paint.
In Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, the women artists’ story is wrested away from the mysticism, patriotism and quest for a lost England surrounding Spencer, and places them at the centre of the narrative of their own lives and careers. Preece and Hepworth met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918; due to World War I conscription, the Slade had a high number of women students, and the Charleston at Lewes show opens with an enlarged photograph of Hepworth at a Slade student party, a carnival of flowing wine, long cigarette holders, and velvet headbands. In a nearby case, the two women’s Slade graduation certificates show that Hepworth was presented with ‘first class’ honours, while the dotted line before honours for Preece is left blank, indicating she simply achieved a pass. Hepworth also won the 1920 prize for Head Painting, receiving £1.10.
It is likely the women’s five-decade-long partnership secured the best future for both of them, by playing to Hepworth’s strengths as an artist and Preece’s talents as an impresario. Drawings and a portrait of Patricia, Cornwall (c.1920) from the couple’s Slade years are the last works signed by Dorothy’s own hand. After this, Charleston attributes a pencil and paper study Patricia Seated (c. 1925) and a pencil Self Portrait, Paris (1925) to Hepworth, then everything that follows is labelled ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece [Title, Date] Painted by Dorothy Hepworth’. Patricia, Cornwall is a boldly experimental study of colour, using yellow to highlight the crown and side of the head, while blends of ochres and greens express her hair’s texture, as well as the shadows along her neck and forearm. Both the draping of the three-quarter sleeve summer dress and the contours of the body beneath are rendered in daubs of pink and red, with an intermittent light grey outline. A pencil study by Preece of a topless female figure, from a year earlier, underlines how sketchy and less resolved her work was. It is the only surviving work by Preece.
While the couple left a photographic and diary breadcrumb trail of their collaboration, leading figures in the post-Great War art world - including Augustus John, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - fell for their subterfuge that Patricia Preece was the creator of works bearing her signature. In February 1922, Preece took examples of her and Hepworth’s work to the home of Roger Fry, an influential curator, writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Fry immediately favoured one style over the other, mistakenly attributing Hepworth’s paintings to Preece’s hand. Preece did not correct him. Upon returning to their studio, Preece informed Hepworth of the misunderstanding. Together the couple decided to collaborate, recognising that by working together they could create the best future for themselves.
Hepworth and Preece spent four years in Paris, where the influence of Andre Derain, Jean Marchand and Andre Lhote can be seen on Hepworth’s still lives with their vibrant colours, angular and rhythmic shapes and new perspectives. Preece arranged the fruit, wine bottles and objects for Still Life with Fruit and Bottles (c.1927), Still Life (c.1925) - canvas laid on board flattening the perspective even further - and Still Life With Teapot (c.1927). Echoes of ‘painters of the interior’, such as Gwen John and the Camden Town Movement, are also evident.
In 1927 the couple returned to England, settling in the Thames village of Cookham. Preece had spent some of her childhood there, giving her a connection to Spencer, who idolised his early life in the village. Hepworth and Preece lived in a newly-built thatched cottage, with a generous allowance from Hepworth’s father. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 ended the support from family, leaving the couple in financial difficulties, struggling to pay the mortgage. ‘I believe that perhaps my painting will pull us through, unless R. Fry lied to you,’ Dorothy writes to Preece in a letter. Preece became Spencer’s only paid model, and the fees went towards the mortgage.
Support from the Bloomsbury group continued after Roger Fry’s death in 1934, and this, combined with income from Spencer’s former home and Dorothy’s portraiture, allowed the couple to continue to live and work. A stylised view of St Ives Harbour from 1937 was painted by Hepworth on Preece and Spencer’s honeymoon. Hepworth travelled with her partner, while Spencer stayed behind to finish a commission, arriving in Cornwall later.
Hepworth’s portraits of Cookham villagers, who were unlikely to spill the beans on who was holding the brush and who was named on the canvas, highlight her ability to capture mood; in Housekeeper (c.1930-1933), the female figure looks away from the viewer, her grey hair and grey dress only just distinct from the grey background, while a white hyacinth in full bloom to the right demonstrates the intricate range of Hepworth’s palette. Her female nudes also display a confidence in evoking female flesh and energy. Queenie (c.1935) poses an adult female figure, with uneven skin tone and bobbed hair with the still life device of a bowl of fruit, as if to update a classic image with an unfiltered, contemporary figure. In 1936 and 1938 two large solo exhibitions in London brought the work of ‘Patricia Preece’ to a wider audience. Hepworth recorded in her diary how they worked together on the shows. All requests for artist interviews were tactfully declined.
In 1966 Preece died, leaving Hepworth grief-stricken and isolated. With nobody to organise models, her work became introspective. The final works in the exhibition, Self Portrait in Blue (c.1968) and View from Interior at Moor Thatch, Cookham (c.1968), share a melancholy mood and bear Hepworth’s dead partner’s initials. Dying in 1978, Hepworth only shared the secret of her half-century of artistic partnership in the last weeks of her life.
Leaving aside ethical questions on the artists’ partnership, this show will resonate with everybody who has witnessed a collective effort not to know something, and dared to wonder if that energy could be used more positively.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story, is showing at Charleston in Lewes until 8th September 2024.
The Secret Art of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece by Denys J. Wilcox is published by The Court Gallery.
