Epstein, Sir Jacob (1880–1959). American-born sculptor (and occasional painter and illustrator) who settled in England in 1905 and became a British citizen in 1911. He was born in New York into a family of Polish-Russian Orthodox Jews. After prospering as a tailor, his father had gone into property. From 1894 to 1902 Epstein studied sporadically at the Art Students League whilst working at various jobs; he discovered a ‘love of the purely physical side of sculpture’ when he spent several weeks cutting ice on Greenwood Lake, New Jersey, and this encouraged him to find work in a bronze foundry, 1900–1. At the same time he attended evening classes in sculpture at which he was taught by George Grey Barnard, whom he admired greatly, referring to him as ‘my old master'. In 1902, on the proceeds of his illustrations for The Spirit of the Ghetto by the journalist Hutchins Hapgood, Epstein moved to Paris. There he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, and visits to the Louvre aroused an interest in ancient and primitive sculpture that lasted all his life and powerfully affected his work. In 1905 he moved to London, where he executed his first important commission in 1907–8: eighteen Portland stone figures, over lifesize, for the façade of the British Medical Association's headquarters in the Strand. They aroused a furore of abuse on the grounds of alleged obscenity and were mutilated in 1937 after the building was bought by the government of Southern Rhodesia. Such verbal attacks and acts of vandalism were to become a feature of Epstein's career.

The next outcry came with his tomb of Oscar Wilde (Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, 1912), a magnificently bold and original piece featuring a hovering angel inspired by Assyrian sculpture; it was banned as indecent until a bronze plaque had been placed over the angel's sexual organs, and after the plaque was removed in a night raid by a group of artists and poets, a tarpaulin was placed over the tomb and remained in place for two years. Epstein carved the tomb in London (it is in Hopton Wood stone), but he spent a good deal of time in Paris during the initial period of controversy; he met Brancusi, Modigliani, and Picasso there and was influenced by their formal simplifications. Back in England, he associated with the Vorticists (although he was never officially a member of the movement), and at this time he created his most radical work—The Rock Drill (1913–15), a robot-like figure that was originally shown mounted on an enormous drill; he said it symbolized ‘the terrible Frankenstein's monster we have made ourselves into’ (casts of the torso are in the Tate Gallery, London, and elsewhere).

Epstein's later work was generally much less audacious than this, but his public sculptures were still attacked with monotonous regularity, their expressive use of distortion being offensive to conservative eyes even when they were immune to charges of indecency ( David Sylvester cites a story of an old lady saying about a figure of Christ: ‘I can never forgive Mr Epstein for his representation of Our Lord—so un-English'). Often Epstein was mocked as well as censured, and in the 1950s some of his works were even acquired by showmen to be displayed in a kind of seaside freakshow. Rima, a stone relief memorial to the naturalist W. H. Hudson in Hyde Park, London (1922), roused perhaps the greatest storm of any of Epstein's works. It was daubed with green paint and a number of well-known figures petitioned for its removal; they included Dicksee and Munnings (present and future presidents of the Royal Academy) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Muirhead Bone came to its defence with a letter in The Times, signed by an equally impressive line-up, including Dobson, Kennington, and George Bernard Shaw. In the face of such controversy Epstein concentrated increasingly on bronze portrait busts, which found a more appreciative audience than his monumental works. Many notable men and women sat for him and he portrayed them with psychological intensity and great mastery of expressive surfaces, carrying on the tradition of Rodin ( Frank Rutter, indeed, called him ‘the greatest modeller since Rodin').

It was only after the Second World War that Epstein's work began to achieve public acceptance, and in the 1950s he belatedly received a stream of honours (including a knighthood in 1954) and of major commissions. In 1956 he wrote: ‘I am inundated with requests for work on buildings, large works which I don't know I will ever be able to accomplish. I was for so long without any commissions, I don't feel like turning down anything that comes my way: but it is all coming too late I'm afraid.’ Almost all these commissions were in bronze, including the huge St Michael and the Devil (1956–8) at Coventry Cathedral, but Epstein was also a formidable carver and two of his finest late works are in stone: Lazarus (New College Chapel, Oxford, 1947–8) and the Trades Union Congress War Memorial (Congress House, Great Russell Street, London, 1956–7). Epstein published an autobiography, Let There Be Sculpture, in 1940 (a revised edition, entitled An Autobiography, came out in 1955). The Sculptor Speaks (a series of his conversations on art) appeared in 1931. A few days after Epstein's death, Henry Moore paid tribute to his central role in the development of modern sculpture in Britain: he ‘took the brickbats … the insults … the howls of derision with which artists since Rembrandt have learned to become familiar. And as far as sculpture in this century is concerned, he took them first.’

Sir Jacob Epstein

The American-born English sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), known principally for his expressively modeled portrait busts, periodically returned to direct carving throughout his career, predominantly drawing on biblical themes.

Born on the East Side of New York City of Jewish immigrant parents, Jacob Epstein was a pupil of the academic sculptor George Grey Barnard at the Art Students League. Barnard's influence was a formative one, and Epstein's later slightly attenuated figurative style was reminiscent of his teacher's. While a student Epstein helped to support himself by contributing sketches to Century Magazine; he also illustrated Hutchins Hapgood's The Spirit of the Ghetto (1901). In 1902 Epstein left for Paris, where he continued his artistic education briefly at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts. He remained in Paris until 1905, and his work of this period shows more than a passing reference to the work of Auguste Rodin, especially in the use of the fragmented figure. Several large programmatic schemes that Epstein worked on at this time, while suggestive of Rodin's ambitious Gates of Hell, stylistically drew upon the highly formalized Egyptian sculpture that Epstein saw in the Louvre.

Epstein moved to London in 1905 and subsequently became a British subject. His first significant work appeared in 1907, when he was commissioned to carve 18 figures for the British Medical Association Building in the Strand, London. Completed the following year, these pieces solidly established the young sculptor's reputation; thus began the many privately commissioned portraits, which continued throughout his career. However, Epstein was not content only with modeling portraits, and he simultaneously pursued his interest in direct carving, restricting his subject matter to the larger themes of mankind, a search for the primordial, archetypal image. In his carved works, especially those executed between 1910 and 1915, he addressed himself to cubist and futurist theories. About 1910 Epstein became keenly interested in African sculpture and amassed one of the finest collections of African art in Great Britain. He continued his pursuit of mastering the form language of other cultures and was drawn particularly to the sculpture of Egypt, Assyria, and pre-Columbian America. His memorial for the tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912) in the Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris, reflects that interest in stylized relief carving, which departed radically from the already established esthetic of Rodin.

On his return to London, Epstein became affiliated with two avant-garde groups of artists: the London Group and the Vorticists. From 1913 to 1915 he worked almost exclusively in a highly abstract manner, carving many of his pieces in flenite. The noted critic T. E. Hulme referred to the work of this period as the seeds of a new, constructive geometric art. Epstein's Rock Drill (1913) was his most ambitious statement of this prewar period. By 1915 he had returned to his modeled portraits, and it was not until a decade later that he again turned his chisel to the stone. Epstein's work from 1915 until his death in London in 1959 falls primarily into two categories: the commissioned portraits and the larger carvings. His portraits are characterized by a vigorously modeled, expressionistic surface, the most representative of which are the Self-portrait with a Beard (1918), Joseph Conrad (1924), and Haile Selassie (1936). Although his clientele included the famous men of his time, some of his most successful pieces in bronze are the portraits of his immediate family and the various models who sat for him. Epstein's carvings were the more controversial body of his work, more innovative and abstract than his portraits. They reflect an entirely different set of concerns, an attempt to continue the themes of the Hebraic-Christian tradition into the form language of 20th-century sculpture. His most representative works in this medium are Rima (1924), the W. H. Hudson memorial in the bird sanctuary in Hyde Park, London; Day and Night (1929) for St. James's Underground Station, London; and Lazarus (1948) for New College, Oxford. His later commissions, the Cavendish Square Madonna and Child (1950) at the Convent of the Holy Child, London, Social Consciousness (1951), the Llandaff Cathedral Christ in Majesty (1955), and St. Michael and the Devil for the new Coventry Cathedral (1958), although executed in bronze, reflect as well those continuing themes first stated in his carvings.

Further Reading

The most complete publication on Epstein's sculpture, including a catalogue raisonné of his work, is Richard Buckle, Jacob Epstein, Sculptor (1963). Statements by the artist on his work can be found in Epstein: An Autobiography (1955), an extended and revised edition of Let There Be Sculpture (1940). An excellent account of his early work appears in The Sculptor Speaks (1931), written by Epstein and Arnold Haskell. Bernard van Dieren, Epstein (1920), provides useful critical material and one of the best assessments of the sources for Epstein's style.

Additional Sources

Epstein, Jacob, Sir, Epstein, an autobiography, New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Gardiner, Stephen, Epstein, artist against the establishment, London: M. Joseph, 1992. □

Epstein, Sir Jacob (b New York, 10 Nov. 1880; d London, 19 Aug. 1959). American-born sculptor (and occasional painter and illustrator) who settled in England in 1905 and became a British citizen in 1911. Before then, in 1902–5, he had studied in Paris and visits to the Louvre aroused an interest in ancient and primitive sculpture that lasted all his life and powerfully affected his work. His first important commission was executed in 1907–8: eighteen over-life-size figures for the façade of the British Medical Association's headquarters in the Strand. The nude figures aroused a furore of abuse on the grounds of alleged obscenity and were mutilated in 1937 when the building was bought by the government of Southern Rhodesia. Such verbal attacks and acts of vandalism were to become a feature of Epstein's career. The next scandal came with his tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris), a magnificently bold and original piece featuring a hovering angel inspired by Assyrian sculpture; it was banned as indecent until a bronze plaque had been placed over the angel's sexual organs, and after the plaque was removed in a night raid by a group of artists and poets, a tarpaulin was placed over the tomb and remained in place for two years. Epstein carved the tomb in London (it is in Hopton Wood stone), but he spent a good deal of time in Paris during the initial period of controversy; he met Brancusi, Modigliani, and Picasso there and was influenced by their formal simplifications. Back in England he became involved with Wyndham Lewis and the Vorticists (although he was never a formal member of the movement), and at this time he created his most radical work—The Rock Drill (1913–15, Tate, London, and other casts), a robot-like figure that was originally shown mounted on an enormous drill; he said it symbolized ‘the terrible Frankenstein's monster we have made ourselves into’.

Epstein's later work was generally much less audacious than this, but his public sculptures were still attacked with monotonous regularity, their expressive use of distortion being offensive to conservative critics even when they were immune to charges of indecency. Rima, a stone relief memorial to the naturalist W. H. Hudson in Hyde Park, London (1922), roused perhaps the greatest storm of any of Epstein's works. It was daubed with green paint and a number of well-known figures petitioned for its removal; they included Dicksee and Munnings (present and future president of the Royal Academy) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Muirhead Bone came to its defence with a letter in The Times, signed by an equally impressive line-up, including Frank Dobson, Eric Kennington, and George Bernard Shaw. In the face of such controversy Epstein concentrated increasingly on bronze portrait busts, which found a more appreciative audience than his monumental works. Many notable men and women sat for him and he portrayed them with psychological intensity and great mastery of expressive surfaces, carrying on the tradition of Rodin. It was only after the Second World War that his work began to achieve public acceptance, and in the 1950s he belatedly received a stream of honours (including a knighthood in 1954) and of major commissions, including the enormous bronze group of St Michael and the Devil (1958) at Coventry Cathedral. See also lead.

Epstein, Sir Jacob (1880–1959). American-born sculptor (and occasional painter and illustrator) who settled in England in 1905 and became a British citizen in 1911. Before then, in 1902–5, he had studied in Paris and visits to the Louvre aroused an interest in ancient and primitive sculpture that lasted all his life and powerfully affected his work. His first important commission was executed in 1907–8: eighteen over-life-size figures for the façade of the British Medical Association's headquarters in the Strand. The nude figures aroused a furore of abuse on the grounds of alleged obscenity and were mutilated in 1937 when the building was bought by the government of Southern Rhodesia. Such verbal attacks and acts of vandalism were to become a feature of Epstein's career. The next scandal came with his tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris), a magnificently bold and original piece featuring a hovering angel inspired by Assyrian sculpture, which was banned as indecent until a bronze plaque had been fixed over the angel's sexual organs. (It was removed in a night raid by a band of artists and poets.) While he was in Paris in connection with the tomb Epstein met Picasso, Modigliani, and Brancusi and was influenced by their formal simplifications. Back in England he became involved with Wyndham Lewis and the Vorticists (although he was never a formal member of the movement), and at this time he created his most radical work—The Rock Drill (1913–15, Tate, London, and other casts), a robot-like figure that was originally shown mounted on an enormous drill; he said it symbolized ‘the terrible Frankenstein's monster we have made ourselves into’. Epstein's later work was generally much less audacious than this, but his public sculptures were still attacked with monotonous regularity, their expressive use of distortion being offensive to conservative critics even when they were immune to charges of indecency. In the face of such controversy Epstein concentrated increasingly on bronze portrait busts, which found a more appreciative audience than his monumental works. Many notable men and women sat for him and he portrayed them with psychological intensity and great mastery of expressive surfaces, carrying on the tradition of Rodin. It was only after the Second World War that his work began to achieve public acceptance, and in the 1950s he belatedly received a stream of honours (including a knighthood in 1954) and of major commissions, including the enormous bronze group of St Michael and the Devil (1958) at Coventry Cathedral.

Sir Jacob Epstein , 1880-1959, sculptor, b. New York City. He studied with Rodin in Paris and later worked chiefly in England. In revolt against the ornate and the pretty in art, Epstein produced bold, often harsh and massive forms in stone or bronze that were the subjects of frequent controversy. His 18 large figures on the British Medical Association Building (1907-8) were removed in 1937 as offensive and structurally dangerous. Epstein's major pieces include the Oscar Wilde Memorial (1911; Père-Lachaise, Paris); a marble Venus (1917; Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn.); a bronze Christ (1919; Wheathamstead, England); the "Rima" figure that forms the W. H. Hudson Memorial (1925; Hyde Park, London); an enormous Adam in alabaster (1939; Blackpool, England); figures for Fairmount Park, Philadelphia; and a Madonna and Child (Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, London). Some of Epstein's best-known work is in bronze portraiture, executed with roughly textured surfaces. His perceptive portraits include those of the duke of Marlborough, Joseph Conrad, Albert Einstein, and Jawaharlal Nehru. Epstein was knighted in 1954. See his autobiography (2d ed. 1963); drawings ed. by Kathleen Epstein (1962); study by Robert Black (1942).

Epstein, Sir Jacob (1880–1959). Sculptor, painter, and draughtsman. Born in New York, he studied in Paris before settling in London in 1905 and becoming a British citizen two years later. From his first commission in 1907/8, eighteen figures for the BMA headquarters in the Strand, which were attacked as obscene, his work was surrounded by controversy. His Oscar Wilde memorial in Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris (1910–11), was at first banned as indecent. His later work was less controversial and his portrait busts of many of the leading figures of the day, for example, Vaughan Williams, T. S. Eliot, Einstein, were better appreciated. Examples of Epstein's work can be seen in London at the Tate gallery and Imperial War Museum and also in Walsall, where his widow's bequest is held. Two of the best-known monumental sculptures are Christ in Majesty (1954/5) in Llandaff cathedral and St Michael and the Devil (1955/8) at Coventry cathedral. He was knighted in 1954.

June Cochrane

Epstein, Sir Jacob (1880–1959). Sculptor, painter, and draughtsman. Born in New York, he studied in Paris before settling in London in 1905 and becoming a British citizen. From his first commission in 1907/8, eighteen figures for the BMA headquarters in the Strand, which were attacked as obscene, his work was surrounded by controversy. His Oscar Wilde memorial in Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris (1910–11), was at first banned as indecent. Two of the best‐known monumental sculptures are Christ in Majesty (1954/5) in Llandaff cathedral and St Michael and the Devil (1955/8) at Coventry cathedral.

Epstein, Sir Jacob (1880–1959) British sculptor, b. USA. He made his most audacious sculptural statements before 1920, starting with a series of 18 nude figures (1907–08), whose explicit representation caused a public outcry. He scandalized Paris with the angel carved for Oscar Wilde's tomb (1912). His most revolutionary sculpture was The Rock Drill (1913–14), an ape that has mutated into a robot. He also produced some extraordinary religious works including the bronze Visitation (1926), the stone Ecce Homo (1934–35), and the alabaster Adam (1939).