SKEAPING, John

John Rattenbury Skeaping, RA (1901 – 1980) was an English sculptor and equine painter. He studied at Goldsmiths College in London, the Central School of Arts and Crafts between 1917 and 1919, and later at the Royal Academy until 1920. In 1924, he won the British Prix de Rome and its scholarship to the British School at Rome.̣ Skeaping was the first husband of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, whom he met while studying in Rome. He was a member of the London Group from 1928 to 1934, joined the Seven and Five Society in 1932, and later, after World War II, worked for a period in Mexico. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1960, having exhibited there since 1922. From 1948, he taught sculpture at the Royal College of Art and was professor of sculpture there from 1953 to 1959. The Tate Gallery owns eight works by Skeaping.