From Album:  Wells John Matching descriptions: 3. Collage 1941 Pencil, watercolour & paper collage on card Signed, studio stamped & dated verso 121/2 x 151/2 ins 31.5 x 39 cms Wells visited Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth at Carbis Bay near St Ives in the spring of 1940 where he was introduced to Naum Gabo. He was deeply impressed by Gabo’s constructivist ideas and immediately fashioned a three dimensional response that Gabo later described to Nicholson as ‘the perfect first effort in spatial construction’. The present example is an important example of Wells exploring tension and balance in space through the use of a series of collaged geometric shapes interconnected within a linear structure and with the central area of radiating lines. The coloured concentric circles in each shape were created with a small brass turntable, a device used by Wells’ father to make microscope slides, and feature in Wells’ sole surviving relief construction of the period in the Tate collection.
		From Album:  Wells John Matching descriptions: 4. Boat c.1942 Gouache & collage on paper mounted on board 73/4 x 117/8 ins 19.5 x 30 cms Wells visited Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth at Carbis Bay near St Ives in the spring of 1940 where he was introduced to Naum Gabo. He was deeply impressed by Gabo’s constructivist ideas and immediately fashioned a three dimensional response that Gabo later described to Nicholson as ‘the perfect first effort in spatial construction’. The present example is an important example of Wells exploring tension and balance in space through the use of a series of collaged geometric shapes interconnected within a linear structure and with the central area of radiating lines. The coloured concentric circles in each shape were created with a small brass turntable, a device used by Wells’ father to make microscope slides, and feature in Wells’ sole surviving relief construction of the period in the Tate collection.
		From Album:  Wells John Matching descriptions: 6. Untitled c.1944 Gouache & pencil on paper 7 1/8 x 9 1/2 ins 18 x 24 cms During his visits to Carbis Bay Wells used to undertake long coastal walks with Naum Gabo, during which Gabo collected pebbles or bones and talked of their affinity with the constructive process. Gabo’s sojourn in Cornwall appears to have confirmed a new tendency to allow these natural sources into his work, perhaps brought on by the state of the war and the means to which science was being put in it. Wells responded to this romantically inspired modernism through his own interest in natural phenomena and by developing his own formal vocabulary to include a triangular ellipse or pebble form. By presenting multiple aspects of a similar form within the same picture and by drawing interior radiating lines to define space, these works reference the contemporary crystal drawings of Barbara Hepworth, an example of which Wells owned. The use of areas of strong primary colour to indicate an interior space in Variationsalso recalls the jewel like intensity of colour used by Hepworth in her S culpture with Colour Deep Blue & Red, 1940 in the Tate collection.
		From Album:  Wells, John Matching descriptions: 7. Variations 1944 Pen, ink, pencil & tempera on board Signed, numbered 73 / 3 & inscribed verso 7 x 10 ins 17.75 x 25.5 cms Exhibited: Plymouth City Art Gallery, Mackenzie, Mitchell, Wells,1975, no. 40 Newlyn Orion Gallery, Penzance, 1975, no. 1 During his visits to Carbis Bay Wells used to undertake long coastal walks with Naum Gabo, during which Gabo collected pebbles or bones and talked of their affinity with the constructive process. Gabo’s sojourn in Cornwall appears to have confirmed a new tendency to allow these natural sources into his work, perhaps brought on by the state of the war and the means to which science was being put in it. Wells responded to this romantically inspired modernism through his own interest in natural phenomena and by developing his own formal vocabulary to include a triangular ellipse or pebble form. By presenting multiple aspects of a similar form within the same picture and by drawing interior radiating lines to define space, these works reference the contemporary crystal drawings of Barbara Hepworth, an example of which Wells owned. The use of areas of strong primary colour to indicate an interior space in Variationsalso recalls the jewel like intensity of colour used by Hepworth in her S culpture with Colour Deep Blue & Red, 1940 in the Tate collection.
		From Album:  Wells, John Matching descriptions: 17 Village 1948 Oil & pencil on canvas laid on board Signed, dated, numbered 87/ 17, studio stamped & inscribed verso 11 x 15 1/4 ins 27.5 x 38.5 cms Wells worked as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth from 1949-51, notably on her series of monumental figurative sculptures of the period including Cosdon Head, 1949 in the Birmingham City Art Gallery Collection These works combined Hepworth’s interest in pure abstraction with her figure drawings of the preceding few years. Many of her works involved two figures presented together, either the same figure for different viewpoints or entwined in some way. Wells at this time developed an interest in incorporating heads and figures within landscape forms as symbolic of man’s interaction with nature. This rare linear study is also related to a series of etchings made at this time.
		From Album:  Wells, John Matching descriptions: 18 Figures 1950 Pen, ink & watercolour on paper Studio stamp & figure drawing verso 7 x 7 ins 18 x 18 cms Wells worked as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth from 1949-51, notably on her series of monumental figurative sculptures of the period including Cosdon Head, 1949 in the Birmingham City Art Gallery Collection These works combined Hepworth’s interest in pure abstraction with her figure drawings of the preceding few years. Many of her works involved two figures presented together, either the same figure for different viewpoints or entwined in some way. Wells at this time developed an interest in incorporating heads and figures within landscape forms as symbolic of man’s interaction with nature. This rare linear study is also related to a series of etchings made at this time.
		From Album:  Hepworth, Dame Barbara 1903-1975 Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975 KEYWORDS:   sold Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975 Discs in Echelon
		From Album:  Hepworth, Dame Barbara 1903-1975 Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975 KEYWORDS:   sold Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975 Small Form (Head ) April 1962 Alabaster Height: 10 1/2 inches (inc. base) Provenance: Bernard and Janet Leach Exhibited: Whitechapel Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth Retrospective 1952 - 1962, 1962, no. 74; Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth Retrospective 1927 - 1967, 1968, no. 125 Literature: A. Bowness, The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, 1971, p. 33, no. 317 Matching descriptions: Small Form (Head ) April 1962 Alabaster Height: 10 1/2 inches (inc. base) Provenance: Bernard and Janet Leach Exhibited: Whitechapel Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth Retrospective 1952 - 1962, 1962, no. 74; Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth Retrospective 1927 - 1967, 1968, no. 125 Literature: A. Bowness, The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth, Lund Humphries, 1971, p. 33, no. 317

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