Barbara Hepworth dawn sculpture could fetch £8m at auction

Auctioneers said the Cornish landscape “strongly influenced” Hepworth who moved to the county in 1939.

She moved to St Ives with her artist husband Ben Nicholson and their family at the outbreak of World War Two.

She lived and worked in Trewyn Studio, which is now the Tate Barbara Hepworth Museum, from 1949 until her death in a fire in 1975.

Auctioneers said the Cornish light, sea, cliffs and ancient stones “became central to her artistic practice” and influenced her technique of adding colour to her sculptures.

Alice Murray, Christie’s head of modern British and Irish Art, said the sculpture was carved “the year the world began again” after the war.

“Three hollows, painted blue, grey and white, catch the light like the first minutes of morning,” she said.