Barbara Hepworth (Wakefield, England, 1903 – St. Ives, England, 1975) studied at the Leeds School of Art and The Royal College of Art in England, where she was educated in the academic tradition. Her work is considered part of the abstract art movement that still aroused a lot of resistance at the time. At the beginning of the 1960s, at the end of her career, Hepworth achieved great international fame and with it status, awards and large commissions. In 1965 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire. At the age of 72, Hepworth died in a fire in her studio in St. Ives in Cornwall. Her studio and home today form the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden.