To The Editor:
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) will be familiar to many as a sculptor,
though, in fact, she also produced some 600 drawings. Included
in this body of work are more than sixty drawings but more particularly,
paintings, of orthopaedic operations, which she produced during
the brief period between November 1947 and the end of 1949. The
pictures fall into three main groups according to subject: a single
surgeon or group of surgeons preparing to operate; theater scenes showing
an operating table, surgeon, assistants, and anesthetist with surrounding
nursing staff; and specific operations.
Nearly all of the paintings in the last group depict orthopaedic
procedures, though a small group of six paintings feature the operation
of fenestration being carried out on the ear - hence, my initial
interest. The orthopaedic procedures that are depicted mainly involve
either the forearm (for example, repair of the median or ulnar nerve)
or the hip (for example, arthrodesis or cup arthroplasty). This
was, of course, the era of the Smith-Petersen operation.
The surgeon who is featured in the paintings is Mr. Norman Capener,
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital
in Exeter, who had treated one of Barbara Hepworth's daughters (one
of triplets) for osteomyelitis of the left thigh in 1943 and 1944. A
friendship developed between the surgeon and the sculptor, and later,
at his invitation, she returned to the operating theater to make
sketches from which the later pictures were derived.
Several of the operation pictures were purchased by doctors and
have disappeared into private hands; I am most anxious to obtain
further information about their location and the names and dates
of the pictures. On the reverse side is usually the title, written
in Barbara Hepworth's own hand; each picture is signed, usually
in a lower corner, and dated, initially quite exactly but later with
only the year. If any of The Journal's readers know of the whereabouts
of any such picture in the United States or own one themselves,
I would be most grateful to hear from them or from any patient of
theirs who may possess one. For those who have a particular interest
in the arts, the fenestration paintings have already been published1.
J. B. Booth, F.R.C.S.
44 The Crofts, Castletown
Isle of Man IM9 1LZ, United Kingdom