An ethereal quality pervades the surgeons at work in Barbara Hepworth’s <em>Reconstruction</em> (1947). In muted tones of beige and blue the medical team is gracefully depicted focusing on the task before them. Hepworth’s <em>Hospital Drawings</em> (1947-49), a series of around 80 oil and pencil drawings, meticulously capture the intensity and drama of a post-war operating theatre. Hepworth, a well-known abstract sculptor, only turned to drawing when post-war scarcity deprived her of wood and stone. The hospital drawings resulted through an incidental friendship. <br><br>Hepworth was invited into the operating theatre by Surgeon Norman Capener. Capener admired Hepworth’s sculpture and requested she teach him to carve. In return, he suggested she watch an operation first-hand in hospital<sup>1</sup>. Hepworth became instantly captivated by her new environment: <blockquote>From the very first moment I was entirely enthralled by the classical beauty of what I saw there.<sup>2</sup></blockquote> <br>Hepworth saw beauty in the intuitive interactions between the clinicians; the intensity of their gaze and fluid movement of their hands created “an articulated and animated kind of abstract sculpture very close to what I had been seeking in my own work”<sup>3</sup>. <em>Reconstruction</em> symbolises synergy between the work of the surgeon and that of the sculptor: the hammer and chisel manipulated with strength, yet precision, to sculpt the perfect form.<br><br>Exploration of this divergent path rekindled Hepworth’s passion for drawing and rejuvenated her interest in the human form; a combination that was to influence her work upon her successful return to the world of abstract sculpture.<br>