Window on the Ear: Barbara Hepworth and the Fenestration Series of Drawings

In November 1943, one of Barbara Hepworth’s daughters (Sarah, one of triplets) developed osteomyelitis of the thigh. This necessitated operation and subsequent treatment at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Centre in Exeter by Mr. Norman Capener. Artist and surgeon subsequently became friends and she encouraged his activities as a ‘weekend sculptor’. At his invitation she came to the hospital in November 1947 watching him in out-patients but more particularly in the operating theatre; other visits to London and Exeter followed. These studies of orthopaedic procedures form the great majority of Hepworth’s sixty-plus hospital drawings/paintings but there is also a small group of six paintings involving an operation on the ear made in April and May 1948. The link between these two and the introduction to the ear surgeon, Mr Garnett Passe, is unclear.Five of the paintings of the ear operation are still in circulation but there is also a sketchbook containing no fewer than 28 drawings. A selection of the sketches together with the fenestration series of paintings will be discussed and also the relationship with the surgeon, Mr Garnett Passe.