Jacob Epstein

Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), British sculptor of portraits and monumental figures. Of Russian-Polish descent, he was born in New York City. He studied at the Art Students League there and in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts with Auguste Rodin. After 1905 Epstein lived in England, becoming a British subject in 1910.

Epstein's sculpture, influenced by Rodin's style, is distinguished for its rough-hewn realism and vigor. His portraits display a strikingly unconventional manipulation of small surface planes and facial details, such as wrinkles, creating an expressive individuality. His important works in stone include the following: 18 figures for the British Medical Association Building, London (1907-8; destroyed); the tomb of Oscar Wilde in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris (1909); the figures Day and Night on the Underground Headquarters Building, London (1928-29); and Ecce Homo (1933) for Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Epstein's notable bronze busts include Joseph Conrad (1924), Albert Einstein (1933), George Bernard Shaw (1934), and Yehudi Menuhin (1945). He was knighted in 1954. Epstein wrote the autobiographical Let There Be Sculpture (1940; revised 1955).