Details

Name

Jacob Epstein

Brief Biography

1880 – 1959, American / English

Occupation

Artist

Description

Epstein was born in New York of Polish Jewish parents. He studied art in New York and Paris, where the work of Rodin and the Ancient Greeks made a lasting impression on him. He settled in London in 1905, becoming a British citizen two years later. From the time of the first commission, the carving of 18 figures for the BMA headquarters in the Strand in 1907, his work provoked violent opposition because of its so-called indecency. His portraits, however, found favour, such that many great world figures sat for him, including Einstein, Shaw and Churchill. In the 1950s he received commissions for several enormous sculpture groups for the cathedrals of Llandaff and Coventry. For most of his life Epstein remained aloof from trends in contemporary art, and his true stature came to be recognised by the public only after his death. He was knighted in 1954.