Painter, the lifelong friend and companion of the painter Patricia Preece, whom she met at the Slade School of Fine Art. While studying there she first showed at RA and in 1918–19 graduated with first-class honours. With Preece she set up a studio in London, then spent four years with her in Paris, where Hepworth studied at Atelier Colarossi. After returning to England in 1925 they rented cottages in the west of England, in 1927 settling in Cookham, Berkshire, where she lived with Patricia Preece until she died, even during Preece’s bizarre marriage to the painter Stanley Spencer, which she sought to discourage. Much of Patricia Preece’s output is known to be by Dorothy Hepworth, especially the later work, but how much is unclear. A studio sale at Christie’s in 1984 encompassed 500 paintings and over 1,500 drawings from Dorothy Hepworth’s studio; these included studies of girls, still lifes and landscapes, especially of the Cookham area.