Manual Ref* SUscSN001 Show 6 images 99
Title*

The Family of Man (Ancestor I - Ancestor II - Parent I from 'Nine Figures on a Hill')
County Suffolk   District Council Suffolk Coastal 
Civil Parish or equivalent Saxmundham  Town/Village* Snape 
Road Off Bridge Road (B1069) 
Precise Location Behind the Concert Hall 
OS Grid Ref TM390575  Postcode IP17 
Previous location(s)  
Setting End of a wide grass terrace on the edge of reeded saltings  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Barbara Hepworth  Sculptor(s)   
Morris Singer (London)  Foundry   

Commissioned by

 At the request of Benjamin Britten. 

Design & Constrn period

 Family of Man 1970, these three were cast under supervision of the artist. 

Date of installing

 1976 

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Statues

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Ancestor I  Bronze  H 276 cm (right) x W 76 m (needs double-check) 
Ancestor II  Bronze  H 276 cm x W 109 cm 
Parent I  Bronze  H 276 cm x W 103 cm 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, at the request of the Hepworth Trust. 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail:

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks Barbara Hepworth Morris Singer Founders London Foundry marks: 2/4 3/4 4/4 (on bases) 
Inscriptions A plaque in front of the group records its ownership and gift to Aldeburgh 

Description (physical)

 The three statues are set in front of the reed beds giving striking views over the River Alde. Each group is made up four bronzes, with superbly worked surfaces contrasting central voids and rough square shapes with ribbed rectangular panels. 

Description (iconographical)

 In the introduction to the Marlborough Fine Arts Exhibition of the group A.M. Hammacher quoted from the artist's 1970 interview with Alan Bowness in Bowness, Alan, ed., Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960-69, London p. 13. In answer to the question: Have ancient Cornish standing stones had any influence on you? Hepworth replied 'It's curious, I had never seen them before I came to Cornwall in 1939... All it did coming here was to ratify my ideas that when you make a sculpture you're making an image, a fetish... Now I've come to love this landscape and don't want to leave it. Any stone standing in the hills here is a figure, but you have to go further than that. What figure? And which countenance?.. I like to dream of such things rising from the ground - it would be marvellous to walk in the woods and suddenly come across such things. Or to meet a reclining form.' The statues were presented to Aldeburgh at the request of Benjamin Britten in 1976, the year of his death, and since 2000 form part of the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to be displayed at Snape. As with the rest of the series the titles indicate familial roles- parents and ancestors. The overall theme is 'the family of man'- which may refer to Edward Steichen's famous collection of photographs published in the 1950s suggesting the universality of human experience. The abstract- totemic appearance of the figures further suggests a non-western- timeless iconography- pointing to the universality of sculptural language across cultures Re-photographed Sarah Cocke 18/05/2009, entry revised Richard Cocke 20/06/2009 

Photographs

 Date taken:  1/9/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  30/5/2006

Inspected by:
David Hulks

Sources and References

 Barbara Hepworth. The Family of Man - Nine Bronzes and Recent Carvings, April-May 1972, Marlborough Fine Art (London) p. 7; information from Sophie Bowness of the Barbara Hepworth foundation 

Database

 Date entered:  15/6/2006

Data inputter:
David Hulks