Doves (Group)

The sculpture depicts two doves sitting next to each other with their heads tucked into their feathers. The birds' forms are rounded and simple and the sculpture's base is left rough and signed and dated by Hepworth.^[4]

The work is figurative,^[9] making it one of Hepworth's less abstract sculptures. Hepworth and Skeaping kept doves and the sculpture was made at around life-size from an inexpensive piece of Parian marble.^[10] It is an example of Hepworth using the direct carving technique.^[10]

The sculpture also took inspiration from marble sculptures of mating doves by Jacob Epstein.^[8]

The work was purchased by Manchester Art Gallery from Beaux Arts Gallery in 1942.^[4] A review of an exhibition at the gallery in 1979 noted Doves as a particular highlight, with the author writing "I wonder how many visitors, like myself, could not resist stroking those cold, white, folded wings when the attendant was not looking!"^[11] It was included in an exhibition of British inter-war art in 2013–14, as well as an exhibition of the gallery's sculpture collection in 2019.^[4][12][13]

It has also been displayed at the 1950 Venice Biennale by the British Council,^[14] in a Tate retrospective in 1968,^[15] in an exhibition at Glasgow Museums in 1987,^[4] and at the 2015 Tate Britain exhibition titled Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World.^[16]