Fascinated from early childhood with natural forms and textures, Hepworth decided at age 15 to become a sculptor. In 1919 she enrolled in the Leeds School of Art, where she befriended fellow student Henry Moore. Their lifelong friendship and reciprocal influence were important factors in the parallel development of their careers.
Hepworth’s earliest works were naturalistic with simplified features. Purely formal elements gradually gained greater importance for her until, by the early 1930s, her sculpture was entirely abstract. Works such as
Reclining Figure (1932) resemble rounded biomorphic forms and natural stones; they seem to be the fruit of long weathering instead of the hard work with a chisel they actually represent. In 1933 Hepworth married (her second husband; the first was the sculptor John Skeaping) the English abstract painter Ben Nicholson, under whose influence she began to make severe, geometric pieces with straight edges and immaculate surfaces.