Mary Barrett was a promising sculpture student who flourished under Shurrock’s teaching at the art school during the 1930s. Her workbook records the detailed process of creating the original plaster version of Horse, which was cast in bronze later in her life. With its carefully observed and rendered anatomical details, Horse highlights a talented student with a promising future. Barrett married fellow artist Leo Bensemann in 1943, but, like many women of her generation had to largely give up her aspirations of becoming an artist to focus on supporting her husband’s career, being a mother and raising a family.

(Dear Shurrie: Francis Shurrock and his contemporaries, 8 March – 13 July 2025)