Barbara Hepworth's Figure in a Landscape has set a new record for her work, in a sale of modern British and Irish art at Christie's London.

The lot achieved £4.1m ($7m) against a £2m ($3.4m) estimate - an increase of 105%.

Hepworth's Figure in a Landscape was inspired by a Greek monk

It smashed the previous record, set at £2.4m ($3.6m) for Curved Form (Bryher II) in July last year, by 70.8% - indicating that Hepworth's market is growing significantly.

The sculpture, numbered six of an edition of seven, was inspired by the sight of a monk alone on a hillside on the Greek island of Patmos.

Hepworth recalled: "This single human figure then seemed to me to give the scale to the whole universe, and this is exactly what a sculpture should suggest in its relationship to its surroundings: it should seem to be at the centre of the globe, compelling the whole world around it to rotate, as it were, like a system of planets around the central sun."

A spokesperson for Christie's commented: "The market for British Art has never been more buoyant.

"The results of the 'Modern British & Irish Art Evening Sale' were the highest ever achieved for a various owner sale in the category and reflect the continued demand for 20th century British & Irish Art from collectors across four continents."

We have this signed photograph from the great British sculptor Henry Moore.

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