Goose (1927-28)

Barbara Hepworth

terracotta

Classification:

Craft

Materials:

Terracotta

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1931

Scheme:

Pottery and Crafts Fund (1928-1948)

Ownership history:

Mrs Cameron, 38 Cadogan Place, London, SW1, 1927 (possibly a different version as edition of 6/7); purchased from the Beaux Arts Gallery, London by Ernest Marsh (1863-1945) for the Contemporary Art Society, June 1928; on loan to Pottery and Crafts Fund CAS touring exhibition at Leicester City Art Gallery and Museum, 1930 (damaged in transit to Plymouth and cost remitted by insurance); presented to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 1931

Relationship:

Ernest Marsh Beaux Arts Gallery, London Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Subject:

Animals (farm), Birds

This clay Goose (BH9) was made by the artist, then called in Barbara Skeaping as she was married to the sculptor John (1901-1980) in around 1927 and was shown at their Beaux Arts Gallery, London (shared with William Morgan) exhibition in June 1928 where it was purchased by Ernest Marsh (1863-1945) with the Pottery and Crafts Fund of the Contemporary Art Society for £15.5. A note on page 18 of the Volume of Sculpture Records by Barbara Hepworth with images and held at the Tate (TGA 7247/1) says it was from the collection of a Mrs Cameron. There seems to have also been a series of stone birds, called Ducks in the Hulton Archive (Getty Images) photograph of the couple at their exhibition in 1928 alongside 6 similar pieces to Goose (1927-8). This terracotta version, bought as a craft work of art, was in the 1929-30 CAS touring exhibition at Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent), Leicester, Plymouth and Bristol art galleries and was damaged in transit but repaired and gifted by the CAS to Bristol in 1931. It has since gained notoriety as a fake version was sold to the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds for £3,000 in 2003, now known to be the work of the forger Shaun Greenhalgh.

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