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
Dorothy Hepworth continued to live together after the wedding, and after Preece gained control of Spencer's finances they evicted him from his house in 1938 to rent it out. Preece refused to divorce her hapless husband. It is believed that many, if not all, of the much-accoladed paintings of Preece were created by Hepworth. Preece attributed the paintings to herself, with the consent of Hepworth, who was shy and preferred not to appear in public. Hepworth's work attributed to Preece was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Dorothy Warrne Gallery, and the Lefevre Gallery. Some of the paintings were purchased