Winged Figure in 1961. John Lewis originally approached Jacob Epstein to create a sculpture to decorate the plain Portland stone side wall of the new store, but he declined as he was engaged on other commissions. Instead, in May 1961, John Lewis asked six other artists to propose designs. In addition to Hepworth – whose breakthrough public sculpture, "Meridian", had recently been installed outside State House on Holborn – the others were Ralph Brown, Geoffrey Clarke, Tony Hollaway, Stefan Knapp, William Mitchell and Hans Tisdall. None of their initial designs was accepted. Hepworth had been asked to express "the idea of common
Joseph Hepworth (tailor) Joseph Hepworth (tailor) Joseph Hepworth (1834–1911) was the clothing manufacturer who founded "Joseph Hepworth & Son", a company which grew to become the United Kingdom's largest clothing manufacturer and which is now known as Next plc. Born at Lindley in Huddersfield, Joseph Hepworth left school at ten to join George Walker's Mill in Leeds in 1844. In 1864 Joseph Hepworth went into business with James Rhodes, his wife's brother, as a tailor in Leeds. By 1881 their factory in Wellington Street employed 500 people and, unusually, made all three pieces of a gentlemen's three-piece suit. In the 1880s they innovated