Jacob Epstein

American-British sculptor (1880–1959)

Sir Jacob Epstein KBE (10 November 1880 – 19 August 1959) was an American-born British sculptor, a pioneer of modern sculpture.[1][2][3][4] He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter. His portrait heads were traditional, but much of his other work was modernist. He also made paintings and drawings, and often exhibited his work.[5]


Jacob Epstein

Jacob Epstein, photographed in 1924 by George Charles Beresford
Born10 November 1880
Died21 August 1959(1959-08-21) (aged 78)
Kensington, London, England
NationalityBritish / United States
Alma mater
Known forSculpture
Spouses
St Michael's Victory over the Devil (1958) Coventry Cathedral
Lucifer (1944/5) Birmingham Art Museum and Gallery
Traditional sculpture of Field Marshal Jan Smuts in Parliament Square, London
Day and Night (1928) London Underground Headquarters, Broadway, London. Modernist sculpture, considered shocking at the time.

The sculptures Ecce Homo (Old Coventry Cathedral) and Rock Drill (1913–1914, Museum of Modern Art, New York City), are famous and important, but we have no images of them. On view in the Strand, London near Trafalgar Square, are his sculptures for Zimbabwe House. There are a number of his busts (sculptures of heads) in the National Portrait Gallery, also near Trafalgar Square.

References change

  1. Epstein, Sir Jacob. The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Biography, p. 498. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003. ISBN 978-0-618-25210-7
  2. Incorporated, Grolier (1994). Academic American encyclopedia. Grolier Incorporated. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-7172-2053-3.
  3. Encyclopedia Britannica. Sir Jacob Epstein (British sculptor)
  4. Hulten, Pontus (1986). Futurism & Futurisms. Abbeville Press. p. 472. ISBN 978-0-89659-675-7.
  5. Carrick Hill, Jacob Epstein Archived 2014-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  • Gilboa, Raquel 2009. ...And there was sculpture; Epstein's formative years (1880-1930), Lonodn, 2009
  • Silber, Evelyn 1984. The sculpture of Epstein, London, 1984