One of the most significant British artists of the 20th century and a pivotal player in the development of British modernism is widely regarded as being Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975), who many consider to be the greatest female sculptor in the history of Western art. This book fills a glaring vacuum in Hepworth scholarship as the first complete and extensively illustrated study of Hepworth's drawings and oil paintings in over fifty years. It includes the most extensive selection of works from all periods, many of which are reproduced in color. 
Alan Wilkinson offers a thorough investigation of a remarkable body of work by identifying the works of art, the artists who created them, as well as the landscapes and seascapes that influenced Barbara Hepworth's drawings. The author takes the reader through all five decades of Hepworth's drawing career, starting with two accomplished early portraits and the sculptural life studies of the late 1920s. The few sculpture-related drawings from the 1930s, the exceptional color abstract drawings from the early 1940s, and Hepworth's studies of surgeons and nurses in operating rooms in Exeter and London from 1947–1949 are among the key pieces. Later works reflect the importance of landscape to Hepworth, with place names included in some of the titles of images that are evocative, rather than literal, depictions of landscape and seascape motifs. Comparative images help to substantiate the narrative and document direct influences and visual affinities with the work of Moore, Nicholson, Gabo and the Parisian avant-garde. This book is essential reading for academics, artists, and the many collectors of Hepworth's drawings, as well as for anyone interested in the history of 20th-century British art. It includes previously unpublished Hepworth drawings and a wealth of insightful quotations from the artist's own writings.