In 1996, the art world was shaken by the revelation that paintings, previously attributed to Patricia Preece, were actually the work of her partner Dorothy Hepworth.
This intriguing story is the focus of a fascinating exhibition at Charleston in Lewes (a new cultural centre in the heart of the town), which reveals details of the pair’s lifelong artistic collaboration and displays a large number of Hepworth’s beautifully executed portraits and still lifes.
Preece, better known as the wife of artist Stanley Spencer, was previously thought to be an accomplished painter in her own right, and acclaimed by Augustus John as “one of the six greatest women artists in England”. But letters, diaries and photographs, some of which are shown in the exhibition, reveal that Hepworth created all the paintings herself and consented to Preece passing off the work as her own. The couple privately documented their creative partnership in detail, perhaps with a view that one day the truth would come to light.
The Hepworth/Preece partnership begins
Hepworth and Preece met at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1918, “soon discovered they had many tastes in common” (wrote Preece) and forged the romantic relationship which lasted until their deaths. Hepworth’s talent is apparent in her early sketches and she graduated with first class honours.
After leaving the Slade, the pair travelled to Paris in 1922, where they attended lesbian salons – “Paris’s acceptance of queer people was attractive” – and Hepworth honed her skills at the famous Académie Colarossi. However, it seems that even there the pair were closeted about their relationship (as was common at the time), and often described themselves as ‘sisters’ or ‘friends’.
Returning to England, they set up home together at Moor Thatch in Cookham, Berkshire, and Hepworth continued to paint. Some of her earlier work, already attributed to Preece, was exhibited in London in 1928.
After the death in 1930 of Hepworth’s father, who had helped support them, they experienced financial hardship and it was expedient for this arrangement to continue. Hepworth was shy and disliked company, while Preece was charismatic, gregarious and happy to represent the public face of the artwork.
Support from the Bloomsbury Group
Preece received considerable support from members of the Bloomsbury Group, particularly the painter Roger Fry, who apparently never knew the true nature of the duo’s partnership.
Thinking they were describing Preece, Clive Bell called Hepworth’s paintings “psychological rather than decorative”, Duncan Grant talked about her “intensely personal vision”, and Vanessa Bell declared that the artist was “gifted and very serious and needs encouragement badly”.
Virginia Woolf bought two drawings and asked Preece to paint a portrait of her friend, composer Ethel Smyth, but reported that Preece was “all a-twitter” at the prospect of painting in an unfamiliar studio – which would, of course, have revealed the deception. The portrait never materialised. It is ironic and rather sad, given Bloomsbury’s various unconventional gay and bisexual relationships, that Hepworth and Preece never felt able to reveal their lesbian or artistic partnership to them.
Augustus John supported Preece, opening her solo exhibition in Old Bond Street in 1936. He wrote in a letter, somewhat condescendingly I thought, “You have made great progress” and added, “Perhaps it’s time you uprooted yourself from Cookham.” But Preece and Hepworth preferred to stay close to home.
Preece’s marriage to Stanley Spencer
Preece came to the attention of fellow Cookham resident, Stanley Spencer, and started to pose for him, fees from which helped pay the mortgage at Moor Thatch. Spencer became infatuated with Preece and wanted to set up a ménage à trois with his wife Hilda Carline, also a painter. Whereas Spencer seems to get off lightly in his treatment of Carline, Preece is often portrayed negatively as the temptress who destroyed a marriage.
In 1937, Preece agreed to marry Spencer after his divorce from Carline, perhaps largely for financial reasons. It is hard to know what Hepworth thought of this decision, but the wedding photograph shows her standing uncomfortably separate, with a rather appalled expression.
Nevertheless, Hepworth accompanied Preece on the ‘honeymoon’ to St Ives, and the pair continued to live together afterwards. It is not known whether the marriage was ever consummated. It is interesting to compare Hepworth’s sensitive and intimate drawings of Preece with Spencer’s fleshy, exaggerated paintings of her, one of which is shown in the exhibition.
Spencer had suspicions about the women’s relationship, spreading gossip about it, and about Preece’s ability to paint, telling a friend: “I have never seen her [Preece] paint, or with a paintbrush in her hand.” Indeed, Preece arranged local sitters so there was little chance of the identity of the painter being shared more widely.
Hepworth’s paintings: interior worlds
Hepworth continued to paint for the rest of her life and the Charleston exhibition is full of her exquisite portraits from the 1930s to 1950s. The paintings depict (mainly) women of different ages, absorbed in reading or playing cards, always looking down or to the side. The colours are quite muted, though with splashes of colour – a vase of tulips, bowl of fruit or bright red nail varnish.
I was lucky enough to be alone in the gallery for most of the time, and the overall impression was one of calm stillness and contemplation. It felt as if I was tapping into Hepworth’s own interior world, depicted through the portraits. I was reminded of some of Gwen John’s work, which has a similar quality.
Together in death
Reading about Hepworth and Preece’s unusual story, a voyeuristic or judgmental perspective can put Hepworth’s art in the shadow. The Charleston exhibition redresses this imbalance, with a clear emphasis on Hepworth’s art alongside uncovering previously hidden aspects of the pair’s collaborative partnership.
Many unanswered questions remain about the nature of the two women’s relationship. Hepworth carried on signing her paintings as Patricia Preece even after Preece’s death in 1966, and the pair are buried together in Cookham churchyard.
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: an untold story is at Charleston in Lewes alongside a complementary exhibition, Duos: the art of collaboration. Both exhibitions are on until 8 September 2024. The exhibition runs in tandem with the publication of ‘The Secret Life of Dorothy Hepworth aka Patricia Preece’ by Denys J. Wilcox, exhibition advisor to Charleston for the exhibition. All images are reproduced with kind permission of Charleston in Lewes.
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