Dorothy Hepworth

Dorothy Mary Hepworth (30 September 1894 – 8 September 1978) was a British painter and the life partner of Patricia Preece. Hepworth signed Preece's name to many of her own paintings, even after Preece's death.

Early life Hepworth was born in 1894 in Leicester, Leicestershire, the older of two daughters of Adela née Jarvis (1865–1954) and Alfred James Hepworth (1859–1930), the owner of a hosiery warehouse. She also had a younger brother, Eric Pachley Hepworth (1897–1898). She attended the Leicester School of Art from 1912. Hepworth moved on to the Slade School of Fine Art in 1917, where she met Patricia Preece, and from which she graduated with first class honours in 1919. She and Preece became lovers. While still a student, Hepworth began exhibiting her work. After graduation, she spent four years with Preece in Paris, where Hepworth studied at the Académie Colarossi and Preece was a pupil of André Lhote. They returned to England in 1925, where they relocated to Cookham for Hepworth's health. Hepworth remained Preece's companion and lover until the latter's death in 1966 at the age of 72.

Hepworth continued to paint and still signed her work as Preece until her own death in 1978. Hepworth and Preece (as Vivian Spencer) are buried in Cookham churchyard beneath a common memorial (pictured).