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Published in 2009 The New Art Gallery Walsall Gallery Square, Walsall WS2 8LG www.thenewartgallery.org.uk Publication Copyright Š The New Art Gallery Walsall 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of The New Art Gallery Walsall.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British library.

ISBN 978 0 946652 98 3 Printed and bound in the UK on 9Lives 55 Design & Art Direction by Stereographic Printed by WM Print

Epstein in the Garman Ryan Collection

/ Figure 1: Jacob Epstein and Kathleen Garman

The spirit of Jacob Epstein runs deeply throughout the entire Garman Ryan Collection at The New Art Gallery Walsall. This presence is tangible, demonstrated by the presence of many artworks that document his long career: 44 of the 365 artworks in the collection. Most of the diverse artworks that form the Collection were purchased by two women, Epstein’s second wife Lady Kathleen Epstein (Kathleen Garman) and her friend Sally Ryan. Despite their obvious involvement in the selection of the works, Epstein’s influence can be detected throughout the whole collection and once its complex history is unravelled its full nature and Epstein’s role in its formation becomes clearer (figure 1).

At the core of the collection is a set of artworks both made and collected by Epstein during his lifetime, which he passed on to Kathleen at his death. There is some archival evidence that Kathleen deliberately purchased Epstein’s work, and the work of some of his close friends and fellow artists, possibly to ‘fill the gaps’ to enable the collection to better reflect his achievements and influences by presenting a more comprehensive body of work.

The Garman Ryan Collection was not the only beneficiary of her generosity: Kathleen donated Epstein’s works to museums all over the world, but the Garman Ryan Collection is arguably the most representative documentation of Sir Jacob Epstein’s career. At The New Art Gallery Walsall the works are displayed thematically in small, purpose-built galleries in a domestic-like setting, to reflect how the works were originally seen in Kathleen’s home. Epstein’s work can be found in all the original themes that Kathleen set up when organising the collection, demonstrating his wide and eclectic interests and areas of creative exploration. In addition, about one third of the collection explores a wide range of artworks by anonymous artists from many different cultures and periods, producing a comprehensive reflection of Epstein’s formative influences. Indeed, a number of these works were a part of Epstein’s own collection of non-European art, predominantly African, regarded by many in the 1950s as one of the greatest private collections of its kind in the world (figure 2).

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Both Sally Ryan and Kathleen Garman were powerful individual characters who collected art they liked and admired. However, the influence of Jacob Epstein is apparent in their selection of the Garman Ryan Collection and it is clear that both women tried to reflect and respect Epstein’s legacy.

Sally Ryan was an artist herself and a great admirer of Epstein’s work. Though never a pupil, as Epstein didn’t have pupils, she was a good friend and was strongly influenced by his work. This influence is revealed through both Sally’s selection of artworks, which inclines towards Impressionism and Post Impressionism and through her own art practice, particularly her portrait sculptures.

Kathleen was also deeply affected by Epstein in a very different way. She was born into a doctor’s family in the Black Country in Wednesbury near Walsall in 1901. She ran away to London to study music with her sister Mary when she was 17 and achieved celebrity in her own right as one of the ‘notorious’ Garman sisters, who were well-known amongst the artistic and intellectual circles in interwar London.

She met Jacob Epstein in 1921 when she was just 20 years old. Her lifelong relationship with him was complex; she had three children by him, all of whom were given the surname Garman, and they finally married in 1955 shortly after Epstein was knighted. This convoluted web of personal relationships spanning three generations is a fascinating but almost hidden aspect of the collection, reflected through the many portraits both present and possibly deliberately absent. There are no portraits of Epstein’s first wife, Margaret (Peggy) Dunlop, who despised Kathleen. These personal relationships add to the intimacy of the experience and are central to any understanding of this eclectic and diverse collection and Epstein’s role in its genesis.

The diversity of the collection becomes even more understandable when viewed thought this tangled group of relationships and friendships. These stories can illuminate the creation, selection and evolution of the remarkable Garman Ryan Collection, bestowed as a gift to the Borough of Walsall by Kathleen. It first opened to the public in 1974 when it was displayed above the Central Library in Lichfield Street in the old Museum and Art Gallery, a physical setting that Kathleen had particularly liked. This collection is much more than a tribute to the legacy of Sir Jacob Epstein as it provided the incentive and core of the project to build The New Art Gallery Walsall where it has been displayed since the building opened in February 2000. Without the legacy of Jacob Epstein and the generosity of Lady Kathleen Epstein and Sally Ryan none of this would have been possible.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), The Sweat Shop or Lunch in the Shop, ca. 1901-02, black chalk.

Born in New York in 1880, the child of first generation Polish Jewish immigrants living in the heart of the Jewish community on the Lower East Side, Jacob Epstein was the second of eight brothers and sisters. From early childhood he drew continuously despite opposition from his father, who did not regard art as a fitting career for his sons. Epstein though was never in any doubt as to what he wanted to do with his life. Two of his few surviving early drawings from New York start the journey through the Garman Ryan Collection which documents his wide ranging career, major achievements, influences and controversies. The Sweat Shop or Lunch in the Shop (illustration 1) and Men with Mice and Birds, ca. 1901 (illustration 2) are both drawings for Epstein’s first commission to illustrate Hutchins Hapgood’s book The Spirit of the Ghetto published in 1902. Epstein’s earliest inspirations were found in the teeming Ghetto life of the Hester Street pushcart market outside his house. A witness has described these early works as:

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Men with Mice and Birds, ca. 1901, black chalk.

— ‘Portraits of old peddlers … an old Jew in the synagogue … Sweat shop scenes, gaunt figures half-dressed, with enormously long arms and bony figures; mothers working in the shops with babies in their arms; one woman tired, watching for a moment her lean husband working the machine … A woman with her head leaning heavily on her hands; Hester Street market scenes, with dreary tenement houses – a kind of prison wall – as background.’ (1)

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Self Portrait, ca. 1901, red chalk.

Thousands of hopeful migrants were arriving on Staten Island, New York from all corners of the world seeking the ‘land of golden opportunity’. Many of them found their way to the streets around the Lower East Side, bringing the world to the young Jacob Epstein’s door, and offering him a wider and richer perspective of humanity than many of his artistic European counterparts; it was also a formative experience that developed his personal and artistic concept of ‘beauty’. The Sweat Shop reveals a great compassion and sympathy on Epstein’s part for the plight that many of these hopefuls faced when they arrived in the USA. His work accurately reflects the poverty and despair which many people faced as their ‘land of golden opportunity’ faded into a nightmare in the poverty stricken slum lands of the city. This situation was not one faced by Epstein himself as his own immigrant parents were quite affluent and already well-established in New York.

They moved to Madison Avenue in 1899 leaving the 19 year old Epstein behind to continue working in a studio in the Ghetto.

Though Epstein had begun to sell his drawings before this, The Spirit of the Ghetto commission was the first opportunity to make his mark artistically. Very few other works survive from this period due to the destruction of his studio, possibly the result of an arson attack by jealous fellow students. The Self Portrait, 1901 (illustration 3) created at the same time, reveals a personality which stares out at you with undisguised arrogance and confidence, traits which must have stood him in good stead later in life as both he and his work came under constant criticism and abuse from the art world, art critics et al. This revealing portrait shows its author projecting a confident sense of self-worth and an intense personal charisma to the onlooker, an impression which the young Epstein probably strove to make in person. However, this projection may have been overdone on occasions and perhaps contributed to some people’s resentment of him, leading to the arson attack on his studio and to later attacks on his work in Paris where he was nicknamed ‘ce sauvage American’. Epstein projected an image of not caring what people said and thought of him; he repeatedly said that he only ‘ever tries to please anyone but myself’ and denied all accusations of being ‘out to shock’. (2) He followed his own ideas and concerns, dismissing and ignoring the criticism piled upon him and creating new and far-reaching work regardless of the outrage, vitriol and racist abuse that it generated.

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With the financial help of various wealthy private patrons Epstein arrived in Paris on 3rd October 1902, just in time to witness the anti-Semitic demonstrations attending the writer Emile Zola’s funeral. He went to the modelling atelier at the École des Beaux Arts and enrolled for 18 months at the Académie Julian. He was also able to visit and study the artworks in the great museum collections of Paris, including the Trocadero’s collection of so called ‘primitive’ sculpture which was to be so influential on his work and on the general developments of 20th century art. In 1903 he met his first wife, Peggy Dunlop, whom he was to sculpt many times. However, although there are many of Epstein’s portrait sculptures in the Garman Ryan Collection, those of Peggy are conspicuous by their absence. Given the relationship between Kathleen Garman and Peggy, which at one stage led to Peggy shooting Kathleen in the shoulder, this is hardly surprising. There is however, a beautiful sculpture of Baby Awake, ca. 1902-04 (illustration 4) from this period. This is Epstein’s earliest surviving sculptural work as he subsequently destroyed all the other sculptures from this period. The New Art Gallery Walsall also acquired in 2004 the partner work to this, Baby Asleep, which is now part of a new and growing collection called the Garman Ryan Epstein Collection.

These sculptures introduce Epstein’s lifelong preoccupation with birth, new life, fertility and the spiritual and religious concerns surrounding these extensive and significant themes. They also indicate Epstein’s lifetime study of children. A significant thematic room on ‘Children’ in the collection contains many of Epstein’s portraits, including those of his own children and grandchildren. Drawings in the collection, Study of a New Born Babe, 1904 (illustration 5) and even earlier from the New York period Children Resting, 1901 (illustration 6) provide evidence that Epstein’s enjoyment and study of children predates Paris.

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Baby Awake, ca. 1902-04, bronze

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Study of a New Born Babe, 1904, black chalk.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Children Resting, 1901, red chalk..

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/ Augustus John (1878-1961), Jacob Epstein, ca. 1905-1906, etching.

With a commendatory letter from Rodin, Epstein and Peggy Dunlop moved to London in 1905 after destroying the contents of his Paris studio. Settling into a studio in Stamford Bridge, Fulham, he became friends with many artists including Augustus John who produced a portrait in the collection, Jacob Epstein, ca. 1905-06 (illustration 7) which is in direct contrast to the confident, charismatic self portrait of five years earlier. John portrays Epstein as a worried and concerned figure with furrowed brow and a definite increase in weight, compared to Epstein’s self portrait of 1901. Another drawing from this period, continuing Epstein’s preoccupation with childhood and revealing his developing sculptural concerns through the use of the power of individual lines, is Profile of a Young Girl, 1906 (illustration 8).

Working in London with extraordinary energy and a ferocious intensity Epstein produced several sculptures which he later destroyed. One of these inspired the architect Charles Holden to commission Epstein to produce the sculptures for the British Medical Association’s new headquarters in the Strand. A drawing of this sculpture, Girl with a Dove, ca. 1906-07 (illustration 9), survives in the collection. This was the big break that the young Epstein needed, giving him the opportunity to work on the ambitious large scale he aspired to. He set about the work in a frenzy of activity producing a series of sculptures through which he wished to ‘create noble and heroic forms to express in sculpture the great primal facts of man and woman’. (3) One highly significant drawing for these works, Study for Maternity, 1907 (illustration 10), reveals the first stirrings of Epstein’s interest in the voluptuousness of Indian sculpture and concentrates on the back line of the head and body, which shelters the pregnant form. In the final sculpture the woman also has a child sheltering in her arms. Epstein wanted the viewer to see the sculpture turned away protectively into the niche it was intended for. In this, his first sculptural commission for a public building, he was very aware of the architectural needs of the designs (figure 3).

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Profile of a Young Girl, 1906, pencil.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Girl with a Dove, ca. 1906-07, pencil.

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Study for Maternity (for the British Medical Association Building, Strand, London), 1907, pen and ink and pencil.

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Figure 3:The British Medical Association Building, The Strand, London, 1908

It was the Maternity sculpture which attracted the attention of the National Vigilance Association whose offices happened to be across the road from the building. They reported the perceived outrage to the press and the resulting scandal became a huge controversy, with Epstein’s carvings denounced as obscene statuary, ‘which no careful father would wish his daughter, or no discriminating young man, his fiancé, to see’. (4) The public nature of the work and its intimate subject matter was objected to:

— ‘Nude statuary figures in an art gallery are seen for the most part by those who know how to appreciate the art they represent and it is only in the most exceptional cases that they afford subjects for vulgar comment of the inartistic – people for whom art galleries were never intended. To have art of the kind indicated, laid bear to the gaze of all classes, young and old, in perhaps the busiest thoroughfare of the Metropolis of the world ... is another matter.’ (5)

The publicity resulted in the Strand being packed with sightseers, ‘most of them girls and young men, all staring up at the statues.’ (6) An impressive array of artists, critics and museum directors came to Epstein’s aid and defended his work.

After much debate and heart searching the statues were allowed to remain, though the works were eventually destroyed in 1937. Comments by people such as Father Vaughn were to continue to echo in response to Epstein’s work throughout the 20th century. He accused Epstein of ‘trying to convert London into a Fiji Island’, and that the carvings incited ‘vulgarity and unwholesome talk, calculated to lead to practices of which there are more than enough in the purlieus of the Strand already’. (7) Intolerance, racism, and bigotry of all sorts had surfaced in response to Epstein’s work; this set the tone for the rest of his life.

Closely following this hullabaloo, in December 1908 Epstein was commissioned to create a tomb for Oscar Wilde who had died in Paris in exile in 1901. The benefactor, Mrs James Carew, donated £2,000 towards the monument on condition that Epstein was the sculptor. It was always going to be a difficult work, the execution of a tomb for Wilde, who was tried and imprisoned for homosexuality in 1895 and still execrated by many; the commission was fraught with difficulties from the outset. Epstein’s drawing, Study for the Tomb of Oscar Wilde, ca. 1909-11 (illustration 11) shows a winged sphinx figure which has its origins in the mighty Assyrian man-headed, winged bull figures which Epstein had studied in the British Museum.

The finished sculpture, when finally installed in the Père Lachaise cemetery, created another controversy.

The cemetery authorities recoiled at its frankness; the size of the male genitals on the figure was deemed far too large and Epstein was ordered to, ‘either fig leaf or castrate the monument’. (8) Epstein refused to modify it and despite letters of protest and various forays to the monument, the tomb was alternatively covered in plaster, a bronze fig leaf or a tarpaulin until the advent of the Great War when the coverings were removed without comment (figure 4).

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Study for the Tomb of Oscar Wilde, 1909, pencil.

/ Figure 4: Jacob Epstein, Tomb of Oscar Wilde, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, 1909-12. Hoptonwood stone

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/ Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Caryatid (Cariatide), ca. 1913-14, pencil and blue rayon.

/ Figure 5: View of upstairs room in Epstein’s House, Hyde Park Gate, London, ca.1959. Photograph Geoffrey Ireland

Despite this continuing annoyance, Epstein’s visits to Paris resulted in meetings with many avant-garde artists including Picasso and Braque. But it was Brancusi and fellow Jewish sculptor Modigliani with whom Epstein developed his main friendships. Modigliani and Epstein dreamed and talked of creating a sculptural ensemble akin to an ancient temple, a ‘Temple of Beauty’ (9). One of Epstein’s prized lifetime possessions now in the collection was given to him at around this time by Modigliani, Caryatid, ca.1913-14 (illustration 12). The work took pride of place in his house in Hyde Park Gate, displayed in his living room over the mantelpiece.

Its lucidity of form and line anticipates the direction Epstein’s sculpture was to take, simplifying and creating a harmonious balance that also had a direct effect upon his drawing style.

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/ Egyptian Mask, believed to be of Queen Nefertiti 18th Dynasty, 1350-1300 BC, plaster.

/ New Zealand (Maori people), Hei Tiki, greenstone with mother-of-pearl inlaid eyes.

The other major influence from that time was Epstein’s discovery of ‘primitive’ sculpture. His sense of beauty, honed in the culturally diverse streets of Lower East Side New York, responded to the artistic and sculptural power in these works. They supplied evidence of a great diversity of sculptural tradition, which until then had been unknown and was perhaps inconceivable to European artists. Other artists of the time such as Picasso and Braque were also inspired, and had some of the sculptures in their studios in Paris. Picasso’s seminal painting Demoiselles d’Avignon which heralded the development of Cubism and the non-naturalistic portrayal of the human figure was produced in 1907.

In Modigliani’s ‘miserable hole of a studio’ Epstein saw sculptures ‘nine or 10 of those long heads which were suggested by African masks, and one figure. They were carved in stone; at night he would place candles on top of each one and the effect was that of a primitive temple’. (10) Though Epstein had undoubtedly seen African and Oceanic sculpture before in museums such as the Trocadero, it is only from this period that he seems to have started to collect what was to become ‘the finest private collection in England and one of the finest in the world.’ (11) These works became a major source of inspiration for Epstein and he became an avid collector spending large sums of money on the collection and gathering together what are now regarded as some of the best works of their genre (figure 5).

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/ Greek, head of a mourning woman 1st century AD, marble.

/ New Guinean (Latmul or Abelan peoples, West Africa), New Guinean comb (from Southern Coast or Torres Strait) ca. 19-20th century, wood.

This collection, which was known as the Epstein Collection, was sold by Kathleen after his death in 1959.

Only a few pieces of Epstein’s remain in the Garman Ryan Collection including the Egyptian ‘Mask of Nefertiti’, (illustration 13) which he regarded as the epitome of beauty. The green stone Maori Hei Tiki from New Zealand (illustration 14), a marble Greek Head of a Mourning Woman (illustration 15) and the Pacific Comb from New Guinea, Southern Coast or Torres Strait (illustration 16) can just be seen on Epstein’s mantelpiece peeping out from behind other works from his collection in this photograph of his house. Geoffrey Ireland documented the whole of Epstein’s collection in the 1950s.

Kathleen however continued to collect not only work by European artists, but decorative art and ethnographic artworks from all periods and from all around the world. Though Epstein’s influence is strong in these areas she obviously did not have the same interest in African and Oceanic works, or the financial backing to purchase the type of works that Epstein had previously bought. Prices for the best works had escalated far beyond her means but also beyond her personal priorities for collecting. Instead the collection has more Greek and Roman works. These were a relatively minor area of interest for Epstein, who, though he stated that his work was grounded in the European tradition, obviously felt that it was not as much a priority for his collecting activities as the African carvings.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Nan, the Dreamer, 1911, bronze.

Representation of the human figure and all its potential to represent the human spirit and condition was Epstein’s continual preoccupation. Models were central to this exploration, especially female ones. The professional model and gypsy, Nan Condron, was a prototypical ‘Epstein model’ and was central to this exploration. She was very easy to work with, apparently demanding no more than to be taken to the music hall once a week in return for modelling. She became a lifelong family friend and according to Kitty Godley, Epstein and Kathleen’s daughter, she turned up at the house in Hyde Park Gate years later in 1953-54 to help during one of the family’s many domestic crises.

Epstein’s figurative work based on Nan projects a sense of the isolation of the human spirit combined with an inner strength and composure with which to withstand the world’s hostility. Nowhere is this better shown than through the sculpture Nan the Dreamer, 1911 (illustration 17). The long angular gangling body is placed

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Head of Nan, 1909, pencil.

in a complex twisted composition which Epstein has worked through in a series of intricate concentrated drawings. Two other drawings of Nan survive in the collection, Head of Nan, 1909 (illustration 18) and Nan Seated (Nude), 1911 (illustration 19).

One of Epstein’s friends from this period, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, saw one of Epstein’s sculptures of Nan in his studio and commented on it in a letter to Sophie Brzeska: ‘he showed me a little bronze, very beautiful, quite the nicest work of his I have seen – alive and sincere – a seated woman with her arms over her head.’ (12) The two artists were influenced by each other’s work, though it was probably Kathleen who added both the drawing of an eagle and the relief sculpture by Gaudier-Brzeska to the collection, Women Bearing Sacks, 1912 (illustration 20).

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lowQ missing / Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Nan Seated (Nude), 1911, pencil.

/ Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915), Women Bearing Sacks, 1912, plaster.

From 1910 to 1917 Epstein’s preoccupation with love, sexuality and fertility was to reach new heights. Moving from London to Pett Level in Sussex, whilst still keeping rooms in London, he produced a series of sculptures on doves. These were not the Christian symbols of peace or Noah’s ark but were images of copulating doves which developed into the totemic Venus sculptures which owe more to his fascination with African sculpture than to classical art. The collection at Walsall contains a drawing Sketch of Doves, 1913 (illustration 21), which is more naturalistic than the finished sculptures. Epstein had a dovecote at Pett Level and would have sketched these mating doves as a starting point for these works. Many of the drawings in the collection expose the artist’s processes and his ideas in the development of his sculptural work. Ezra Pound described Epstein’s Doves in his review in The Egoist (16 March 1914) as ‘placid, with an eternal placidity (representing) the immutable, the calm thoroughness of unchanging relations.’ (13) The finished sculptures for this series of works can be found in museum collections around the world, including Doves – Third Version, 1914-15 which can be found in the Tate Collection, London (figure 6).

Wyndham Lewis wrote in 1913 that Epstein found ‘in the machinery of creation a dynamo to work the deep atavism of his spirit’. (14) The link between Epstein’s iconic sculpture, ‘The Rock Drill 1913-15 and his Doves series is not immediately obvious though the quote by Lewis reveals the linking thought processes around fertility and sexuality (figure 7).

Epstein continued to look towards non-European artworks for inspiration. He was most probably collecting them at this point but had also just visited Paris with David Bomberg to help select work for the Jewish section of Twentieth Century Art: A Review of Modern Movements, an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in which he also exhibited. Whilst in Paris he had seen the celebrated Fang Reliquary Head (bieri) from Gabon, which he later acquired for his collection.

Epstein continued to look towards non-European artworks for inspiration. He was most probably collecting them at this point but had also just visited Paris with David Bomberg to help select work for the Jewish section of Twentieth Century Art: A Review of Modern Movements, an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in which he also exhibited. Whilst in Paris he had seen the celebrated Fang Reliquary Head (bieri) from Gabon, which he later acquired for his collection.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Sketch of Doves, 1913, black chalk and watercolour.

/ Figure 6: Jacob Epstein, Doves – Third Version, 1914-15, Tate Collection

/ Figure 7: Jacob Epstein, Rock Drill, 1913-15, ready-made drill, plaster. Dismantled by sculptor, 1915 Epstein

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Study for Rock Drill, ca. 1913, charcoal.

The drawing for the Rock Drill sculpture, which has made its way into the Garman Ryan Collection, is one of the more resolved sketches for the work. Study for Rock Drill, ca. 1913 (illustration 22), is close in concept to the original Rock Drill sculpture that was later destroyed by Epstein. The background of skyscrapers and dramatic jagged lines, gives the drawing a futuristic science fiction look, wildly in advance of its time. Epstein was a founder member of the Vorticist group, the English version of the Italian futurists. The Vorticists were a group of artists who espoused the future and power of machinery, condemning the old, the traditional and the establishment. Their manifesto BLAST includes development sketches on the subject of birth by Epstein which made links to the Maori Hei Tiki’s from his collection, one of which is still to be found in the Garman Ryan Collection (see illustration 14).

One thing that Walsall’s Study for Rock Drill does not show is the foetal shape curled up inside the sculpture.

The sculpture is an undeniably male, phallic, mechanistic figure, symbolic of the future and the power of machinery, however it is nurturing life inside its armoured body. It is an interesting concept and it is difficult not to link this to Epstein’s personal situation: he and his wife Peggy Dunlop continued to be childless. For any couple this would have been difficult but for a man like Epstein who loved children and was obsessed with expressing concerns of fertility, birth and childhood, this situation must have been intolerable.

By 1916 Epstein had destroyed and rethought the original Rock Drill sculpture and exhibited just the Torso in Metal from the Rock Drill, 1913-15 (figure 8). With the arm and hand amputated, it presents a sad and tragic figure possessing the stooping pathos of a soldier returning from the front. The Great War was taking its toll and Epstein was unable to avoid being swept up in it. He hated war. Two of his best and most valued friends Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and TE Hulme had both been killed in battle. Despite attempts to become a war artist Epstein was commissioned into the Jewish Fusiliers in 1917 and suffered a nervous breakdown on the eve of being sent to the Middle East. He retrospectively said of his Rock Drill sculpture that it was ‘a thing prophetic of much of the Great War and as such within the experience of all.’ (15)

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/ Figure 8: Jacob Epstein, Torso from the Rock Drill, 1913-15. Gunmetal original cast, Tate Collection

/ Figure 9: Jacob Epstein, The Risen Christ, 1917-19, bronze. The Scottish National Gallery of Art Epstein

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Bust of Meum, 1918, bronze.

In 1916 Epstein had met the pretty young secretary Meum Lindsell and fallen in love. And although the Garman Ryan Collection does not contain any of the five portraits Epstein made of his wife between 1912 and 1918 (the relationship between Kathleen Garman and Peggy Dunlop was hardly cordial) it does include the Bust of Meum, 1918 (illustration 23). Epstein was 37 years old and had just recovered from his breakdown when Meum gave birth to his first child Peggy Jean. Epstein was engrossed with his child and sculpted her portrait many times. Peggy Jean lived and grew up with Epstein and Peggy Dunlop leaving Meum free to pursue an acting career.

Within months the war was ended and Epstein was able to continue the project that had concerned him since before his enforced call up. The aggressive dynamism of the Rock Drill had given way to a more compassionate and contemplative vision. The Risen Christ 1917-1919, now in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, was a return from the abstraction of his Vorticist period to figurative work (figure 9). The model for the work was his friend the Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren, and as happened to Epstein so frequently the sculpture caused another furore. It was accused, in decidedly racist and anti-Semitic terms, as looking like ‘some degraded Chaldean or African … some Asiatic American or Hun-Jew’. (16) Another ‘witty’ letter writer also commented, ‘I saw the so called “Christ” at the bronze founders & a more scrofulous, unhealthy looking thing I never set eyes on. I was told that Epstein got very little pay for these works but his natural inclination is towards filth, and this is a gratuitous insult to Christianity.’ (17) The Garman Ryan Collection contains Hands of the Risen Christ, 1917-19 (illustration 24), which Epstein had cast separately, which provides an unprecedented opportunity to view the hands alone. Cecil Gray the model for the hands and feet talked of the agonies of ‘maintaining ... the rigid position of the hands which are, in both senses of the word, the crucial element in the composition’. (18) Speaking of the sculpture years later Epstein said that it ‘stands and accuses the world for its grossness, inhumanity, cruelty and beastliness, for the world war’. (19) Epstein

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Hands of the Risen Christ, 1917-19, bronze.

It is certainly the accusing hands which form the focal point of the composition. A closer inspection however reveals that the crucifixion hole in Christ’s hand holds an unmistakable resemblance to female genitalia.

This shock is followed by an equal realisation that Epstein knew what he was doing; this was not a chance resemblance. The crucifixion is the symbolic event in which Christianity is born (Christ died to save us all), the re-birth of Christ through the crucifixion and the original birth of Christ as a real suffering human with a human mother are all central to Christian thinking. What more natural symbolism could Epstein create than to make the wounds of the crucifixion mirror the place of birth of both Christ and all of humanity?

In 1921 Epstein fell passionately in love again with the beautiful vivacious 20 year old Kathleen Garman, who was 21 years his junior. She was to stay with him for the rest of his life and was the creator, with her friend Sally Ryan, of the Garman Ryan Collection. In 1917 Kathleen had left her home in Wednesbury at the age of 18 with her sister Mary to study music in London. The two young women were immediately swept up into the social and artistic whirl of the bohemian cafés. Epstein and Kathleen met at the Harlequin Café; they found each other irresistible, and he invited her to become his model. The morning after their first night together he started work on the first of seven portraits; this romantic work First Portrait of Kathleen, 1921 (illustration 25), is in the collection.

Kathleen was to become his lifelong love and artistic muse and in this first work her upward gaze holds an almost religious ecstasy, combining both inward-looking contemplation and an outward view towards the infinite. One of Epstein’s later drawings of her also surfaces in the collection, Kathleen, 1929 (illustration 26). The sensual and languorous lines of Epstein’s mature, fluid, linear style accentuate these aspects of her personality.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), First Portrait of Kathleen, 1921, bronze.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Kathleen, 1929, pencil.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Theo, 1930, pencil.

Epstein was, however, still devoted to his wife Peggy, as she was to him. Two parallel households emerged from the emotional mess, with Kathleen maintaining her independence and having three children by him. It was not an easy period; the stigma of illegitimacy at the time was potentially horrendously damaging and kept hidden from everyone except close family and friends. Theodore was born in 1924, Kitty in 1926 and Esther in 1929. Life cannot have been easy for any of them and after a decade of strife and passion they eventually settled down into a pattern with Epstein visiting Kathleen every evening after work and spending Wednesday and Saturday nights with her. Letters in the Epstein Archive, which track several decades of their relationship, reveal that the love and passion never changed. They were eventually married in 1955.

Of the three children however, only Theodore stayed with Kathleen throughout her life. A number of drawings of him as a child exist but strangely, given Epstein’s avid modelling of his other children, there are no sculptures, Theo, 1930 (illustration 27).

Kitty went to live with her grandmother in Herefordshire as a baby, visiting her mother in London for holidays only. These visits resulted in a fine drawing by Epstein of her aged 11, Portrait of Kitty, 1937 (illustration 28). Kitty was unaware at the time that he was her father. It was never explained to the young child and she only unravelled her complicated parenthood gradually; it was not talked about and the stigma of illegitimacy followed her throughout her life. She has spoken about how even at art college in the 1950s she was insulted and scorned by some fellow students. Epstein was to continue to sculpt her, producing the portrait of an ecstatic bright-eyed young woman, aged 18 years, Kitty with Curls, 1944 (illustration 29). Kitty became famous as a model for another young artist, Lucian Freud, whom she married. Important early paintings

by Freud of Kitty and their children can be found in the collection, Portrait of Kitty, 1948-49 (illustration 30). Following Freud’s affair with her Aunt Lorna (Kathleen’s sister), Lucian and Kitty were married in 1948, and their two children Ann and Annabel were born in 1948 and 1952. Two of Freud’s paintings of Annabel exist in the collection, Annabel, 1967 (illustration 31) and Sleeping Girl, 1961 (illustration 32). Epstein also sculpted them, The Sisters (Ann and Annabel Freud), 1952 (illustration 33). By this time he had perfected his methods of sculpting very young children, deploying parents, grandparents and a whole host of carers to entertain the infants, who were often seated in a child’s chair with a play tray in front of them, while he worked.

Kitty and Lucian Freud were divorced in 1954. The complex lives of the Garman family have been beautifully researched and written about by Cressida Connolly in her book The Rare and the Beautiful.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Portrait of Kitty, 1937, pencil.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), First Portrait of Kitty with Curls, 1944, bronze.

/ Lucian Freud (1922- ), Portrait of Kitty, 1948-49, oil on board.

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/ Lucian Freud (1922- ), Annabel, 1967, oil on canvas.

/ Lucian Freud (1922- ), Sleeping Girl, 1961, watercolour.

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), The Sisters (Ann and Annabel Freud), ca. 1952, bronze.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), First Portrait of Esther (with Long Hair), 1944, bronze.

Epstein’s youngest child, Esther, became the subject of a sculpture which Epstein said that if he was going to be judged by any work this would be the one. Esther was nicknamed within the family, ‘Esther the Beautiful’.

Looking at her photographs and portraits, she does not conform to a conventional 20th century European concept of beauty. This is however typical of Epstein’s perception of beauty: he saw what other people did not and in doing so got under the skin of their surface posturing to produce some of the finest portrait sculptures of the 20th century. The First Portrait of Esther (with Long Hair), 1944 (illustration 34), was done when Esther was only fifteen and the modelling of the hair and face derives some influences from Egyptian sculpture, of which Epstein had a large number of pieces in his collection, including the Mask of Nefertiti (see illustration 13), which he gave to Kathleen. He found similarities between this sculpture and the features of both Kathleen and their daughter Esther.

Another sculpture of Esther, at age 20, also exists in the collection, Third Portrait of Esther with Flower, 1949 (illustration 35). Five years later Esther committed suicide. She had been in a complicated relationship with Mark Joffe, whose son Roland she had looked after as her own child. A sculpture of Roland is also present in the collection, Roland Joffe, 1949-50 (illustration 36). After Esther’s death Roland lived with Kathleen and Epstein and grew up to become a director of films such as The Missionary (1986) and The Killing Fields (1984).

Another contributing factor in Esther’s depression and suicide was the death of Theodore. Despite living away from each other for many years in their childhood, Esther and Theo were very close. Kathleen’s own old nanny, Ada Newbould, who lived in Walsall, had fostered Esther. Kathleen’s frequent visits to the area to see her resulted in a pastel drawing in the collection by the 15 year old Theodore Garman, revealing a precocious artistic ability, Stubbers Green Pool, Shelfield, 1939 (illustration 37). Theodore also made a sensitive pastel drawing of his sister Esther a year later, The Sick Child, ca. 1940 (illustration 38).

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Roland Joffe, ca. 1949-50, bronze.

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Third Portrait of Esther with Flower, 1949, bronze.

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/ Theodore Garman (1924-1954), Stubbers Green Pool, Shelfield, ca. 1939, pastel.

The three children were eventually to come together in the village of Harting during the Second World War. Theodore was working on the land as a conscientious objector and they were living with their maternal grandmother. It was here that Theo’s mental illness, now believed to be a form of schizophrenia, began to show itself, much to the distress of his siblings. Kitty later related how he kept compulsively touching his foot with his hand as they walked along together. He was increasingly difficult to look after and when Kathleen had moved into Epstein’s house in Hyde Park Gate, following Peggy’s death in 1947, Theodore continued to live and paint in the Chelsea Road house that Kathleen had occupied for many years. His mother went backwards and forwards between the two households feeding and looking after both dependants.

The untrained Theodore Garman produced a large number of paintings which create a vibrant, colourful and undeniable presence in the Garman Ryan Collection. Window Picture in June, 1951 (illustration 39), a still life which is also the view out of his Chelsea Road studio window, into which he also painted Christ with Crown of Thorns, ca.12th-14th century (illustration 40). This carving was one of Theodore’s medieval sculptures which he purchased and kept in his studio. It has also found its way into the collection along with other works given to Kathleen by Epstein, which she had around her as interior decoration and furniture in the Chelsea Road house.

/ Theodore Garman (1924-1954), The Sick Child, ca. 1940, pastel.

Theodore also lived and worked in 272 Chelsea Road, utilising one item from the collection as a stool to sit on while he painted (figure 10). This was the Cameroonian Royal Stool from the Bamileke Kingdom (illustration 41) and is very similar to several others owned by Epstein and may have been one of his gifts to Kathleen. It would have been an unusual piece for either her or Sally Ryan to collect.

Epstein was unable to acknowledge his son at Theodore’s first exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1950, due to the possible resulting scandal of illegitimacy; instead he referred to him as his ‘protégé’ in the press coverage of the exhibition. It wasn’t until after Theodore’s death (of a heart attack in the ambulance that was taking him to hospital), that Kathleen and Epstein were finally married in 1955. Kitty has said that they had been unable to be married before because of Theodore (presumably it did not matter so much if you were a girl!) The nature of Epstein’s second family had been hidden from the press for many decades and it wasn’t until the 1960s that social change made this fear less important and no longer the shocking and destructive scandal which it would have been years earlier.

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/ Theodore Garman (1924-1954), Window Picture in June, 1951, oil on canvas

/ French, Christ with Crown of Thorns, ca. 12-14th century, wood.

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/ Cameroonian (Bamileke Kingdom), Royal Stool, ca. 1920-30s, wood.

/ Figure 10: Theodore Garman at work on a portrait. Theo is seated on the Cameroon Chair and his painting Window Picture in June can be seen on the wall

Epstein’s fifth and final child was Jackie Epstein the son of another model and artist Isabel Nicholas. Jackie grew up with Epstein and his first wife Peggy Dunlop and though Jackie was aware of there being another family, it was not talked about and he only met the Garman’s after Peggy’s death in 1947. No sculptures of either Jackie or Peggy Jean, Epstein’s first child, exist in the Garman Ryan Collection.

However, other portraits of friends and family do tend to dominate the collection, including the portrait of the young sculptor, Sally Ryan, 1937 (illustration 42), who was to become a firm friend of Kathleen’s, and her collaborator in the creation of the collection. A number of more celebrity portraits can also be found here. The Indian philosopher and writer, Rabindranath Tagore, 1926 (illustration 43), and later the poet TS Eliot, 1951 (illustration 44), who had been a friend of John Quinn, Epstein’s wealthy American patron and art collector. A rather bizarre addition is a sculpture of St Francis, 1942 (illustration 45), a commission which never achieved its financial aims.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Sally Ryan, 1937, bronze.

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Mask of Rabindranath Tagore, 1926, bronze.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), St Francis, 1942, bronze.

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), TS Eliot, 1951, bronze

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Indian Mother and Child, ca. 1932, pencil.

By the 1930s Epstein had become the pre-eminent portrait sculptor of the day. He had no shortage of commissions and they supplied him with a steady income at a time when large scale major sculpture commissions were in short supply. His portrait work during the 1920s however is mostly personal in nature.

The subjects were friends, casual acquaintances and people stopped in the street, who he asked if they would come to the studio and sit for him. Among them were many non-Europeans: Africans, African Americans, Indians, Asians and people of mixed heritage. From his childhood in New York onwards, Epstein had always mixed with ethnic communities other than his own and he admired and recognised what he called ‘the plastic quality of coloured people.’ (20) One of Epstein’s most important models during this period was a Kashmiri woman, Amina Peerbhoy, a stunning woman nearly six-foot tall, whom Epstein had met with her sister Miriam Patel running an exotic artefacts stall at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. The two women, with Amina’s son Enver, moved in with Epstein and Peggy between 1925 and 1932. He drew and sculpted them many times: Indian Mother

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Reclining Model (Sunita, Nude), pencil.

and Child, ca. 1932 (illustration 46), Reclining Model (Sunita, Nude), ca. 1930 (illustration 47) and Sunita, ca. 1930 (illustration 48). He controversially used Sunita and Enver as the models for his New York Madonna and Child, 1926-27 (figure 11), which was purchased by Sally Ryan and donated to the Riverside Church in New York, which is where Sally is buried. The heads were cast separately and are here in the collection, Heads of New York Madonna and Child, 1926-27 (illustration 49).

Once again Epstein found that many people objected to his portrayal of the Virgin and Christ Child. In a society bought up with the almost saccharin sentimentality of Victorian and Edwardian portrayals of religious figures, Epstein’s use of Indian models must have been shocking. Most people seemed to believe that the Virgin Mary should be fair skinned and European-looking and objected to her being portrayed any other way. With a fascinating twist Epstein went on to use Sunita’s head for his sculpture of Lucifer, 1944-45, now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Thus Sunita’s strong, powerful features become not only the symbolic embodiment of good but also of evil too.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Sunita, ca. 1930, charcoal on cardboard

/ Figure 11: Jacob Epstein, New York Madonna and Child 1926-27, bronze. Riverside Church, New York

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Heads of New York Madonna and Child, ca. 1926-27, bronze.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Two Heads (PietĂ ), 1932, pencil.

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), The Blessing, 1930, pencil and watercolour.

Religion was always a subject of great fascination and concern to Epstein. Though bought up in an Orthodox Jewish family he did not espouse any form of organised religion himself: ‘I have carefully refrained from advocating religious or idealistic propaganda of any sort, and have always put out my sculpture as sculpture.’ (21) However, the philosophical and spiritual issues in religion drew him constantly. He produced many sculptures and drawings on biblical themes. Returning to an earlier sculptural theme from the New Testament with his Risen Christ, 1930 (illustration 50), Two Heads (Pietà), 1932 (illustration 51), and The Blessing, 1930 (illustration 52) – all sketches in the collection. None of his remarkable Old Testament drawings are present, however one pencil and watercolour sketch in the collection, Figure Study, Male Nude (Adam), 1934 (illustration 53), may well be a preparatory sketch for one of these drawings. In these biblical works Epstein starts to use watercolour for the first time, initially with small slightly tentative but telling blocks of colour but gradually gaining in confidence. Always a compulsive sketcher, whose drawings were far from exclusively preliminary studies for sculptures, Epstein started to use a watercolour paint and brush as a drawing tool.

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Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Risen Christ or ‘Noli me tangere’, 1930, pencil.

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Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Risen Christ or ‘Noli me tangere’, 1930, pencil.

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/ Matthew Smith (1879-1959), Flower Piece, ca. 1952-53, oil on board.

He had at this time rented a house in Epping Forest where he would retreat at weekends to paint, draw and think, often with his eldest daughter Peggy Jean, or his best friend the artist Matthew Smith whose work he avidly collected. Unfortunately Epstein was forced to sell his large collection of Smith’s work to pay his tax bill, but two works by Smith survive in the collection, Flower Piece, ca. 1952-53. (illustration 54), is one of them.

The inspiration of the forest environment enabled Epstein to produce several strange mystical stone sculptures Chimera, 1932, and Elemental, 1932, but in a typically Epstein-esque flow of ecstatic energy he also painted hundreds of forest landscapes over a considerable period. The vibrant Autumn Landscape, Epping Forest, 1933 (illustration 55), is one example. Epstein’s friendship with Smith was to continue throughout their lifetimes (they both died in 1959). Their friend Stephen Gardiner (who’s father Clive Gardiner’s work is also in the collection) describes in his biography of Epstein, a visit Epstein made to Matthew Smith with Kathleen:

— ‘He was so ill – he died a month later – that they lent him a tiny Renoir landscape, a real gem, to have beside his bed. Nevertheless both artists were in high spirits at seeing each other, and talked for hours about painting and sculpture.’ (22)

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Autumn Landscape, Epping Forest, 1933, watercolour and gouache.

It seems highly probable that the painting is the tiny Renoir Les Oliviers Ă Cagnes sur Mer, ca. 1903-19 (illustration 56), in the Garman Ryan Collection.

Epstein’s Epping Forest paintings sold very well and helped to keep his households running, whilst also enabling him to continue collecting. While many of his major sculptural works caused opprobrium and controversy, and often remained unsold, his paintings and drawings delighted audiences. In 1943 a Dutch firm commissioned him to produce a series of flower paintings. What had originally been a commercial proposition rapidly developed into an obsession, with Epstein filling the house in Epping Forest with a glorious riot of flowers and, according to Jackie, he needed the resources of a gardener to ensure a continuous and generous supply of suitable blooms. Sunflowers, 1943 (illustration 57), is one of many of these riotous, energetic paintings.

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/ Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), The Olive Trees at Cagnes sur Mer (Les Oliviers Ă Cagnes sur Mer), ca. 1903-19, oil on canvas

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Sunflowers, 1943, watercolour and gouache

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), The King of a Rainy Country (Le Roi d’un Pays Pluvieux), illustration for Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal, ca. 1933-39, pencil

/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Maquette for Cavendish Square Madonna and Child, 1950, lead, halo in bronze

Epstein’s first love, book illustration, was also to prove a profitable and absorbing interest. In 1936 his exhibition of powerful illustrations for Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal was very well received by the critics and public alike.

Though he intended them to be produced as a print portfolio this never happened and sadly most of them were split up and sold. One still survives here in the collection, The King of a Rainy Country, 1933-39 (illustration 58), a testament to the power of Epstein’s diverse interests and skills.

Examples of drawings for many of Epstein’s major sculptural works throughout the 1920s such as Rima, 192325, Night and Day, 1928-29, and Genesis, 1929-30, are largely missing from the collection. Following the adverse publicity that greeted the Night and Day sculptures for the London Underground headquarters,

/ Figure 12: Jacob Epstein, Madonna and Child, former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, Cavendish Square, London 1950-52, lead

Epstein was not to be given another major commission until 1950, when, through various convoluted and devious exchanges, he received the commission to produce a sculpture for the Convent of the Holy Jesus in Cavendish Square, London. Without any money being forthcoming he produced the Maquette for Cavendish Square Madonna and Child, 1950 (illustration 59), using Kathleen’s outgoing, eager, upwardlooking face as the model. The nuns were horrified when they realised that Epstein was the artist and before they allowed the project to go ahead they interrogated the sculptor on his religious beliefs and demanded that a more meditative interpretation of the Madonna’s face be produced. Epstein complied on all fronts and the sculpture finally went ahead without Kathleen’s features. This was the break that Epstein had needed after many long years (figure 12).

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Frisky, 1953, bronze

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/ Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Study of a Cat, ca. 1920, bronze.

His late life produced a flood of commissions which he could barely keep up with. One was for the new Lewis’s store in Liverpool in 1954. The three relief plaques he made, as well as the large sculptural figure, contain reworkings of several of his earlier sculptures including one of his granddaughter Annabel, who is shown in her pram with a little dog begging appealingly with one paw raised. The dog was Frisky, 1953 (illustration 60), which appears in the collection and was Epstein’s family pet and great companion. Frisky, a miniature sheepdog was probably obtained originally from Meum, Peggy Jean’s mother, who had run kennels in the 1930s and 40s. Frisky was bought for Jackie but the young boy was far more interested in cars and engines, and so the little dog became Epstein’s faithful companion, accompanying him everywhere, even onto the scaffold of the Trades Union Congress War Memorial which he carved in 1955 (figure 13).

Though animals were not one of Epstein’s usual subjects, he had modelled Study of a Cat, ca. 1920 (illustration 61), many years earlier. No connections to any other artworks have been traced and we do not know whether it was a family cat or where the model for it came from. Frisky, on the other hand, had been a subject of great entertainment and education for Epstein’s grandchildren, Ann and Annabel Freud. His daughter Kitty recalled how he would carry plasticine in his pockets with which to entertain the children by making miniature sculptures of the little dog when they were out for the day.

The personal family nature of the Garman Ryan Collection tends to takes precedence from the 1920s onward in the representation of Epstein’s work. Major commissions and sculptures are missing from the chronology.

In order to address this, in 1997 Walsall Museum and Art Gallery set up a new collection the Garman Ryan Epstein Collection in order to be able to ‘fill the gaps’ as it were in the Garman Ryan Collection. With help from a number of private benefactors and financial assistance from the Art Fund and the V&A Purchase Fund, the museum has expanded its collection of both Epstein’s work and work by his friends and family and continues to do so.

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Epstein never stopped learning through drawing, making and studying. The Garman Ryan Collection reveals a diverse range of materials and processes, through developmental sketches for sculptures and paintings, to the display of finished artworks. It is a superb educational tool and stands as a testament to both Epstein and Kathleen’s love of and study from original artworks, both for personal enjoyment and for the development of creative ideas and expression. They would both also thoroughly approve of The New Art Gallery Walsall’s ongoing commitment to the display of new and sometimes controversial work, Epstein having experienced the frustrations of prejudice and lack of opportunity firsthand. They would also both have approved of the gallery’s commitment to education and access in the broadest sense of the terms.

In 1973 Kathleen wrote: ‘I feel we are dealing with dreams and are about to house them in a solid Midlands town for posterity. How delightful.’ (23) — Jo Digger Head of Collections The New Art Gallery Walsall

/ Figure 13: Jacob Epstein with his pet dog Frisky Epstein

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Notes 1.

H Hapgood, A Victorian in the Modern World (1939), University of Washington Press, 1972, pp159-60

2.

J Epstein and A Haskell, The Sculptor Speaks, William Heinemann Ltd, 1931

3.

J Epstein, ‘The Artist’s Description of His Work’, British Medical Journal, 4 July 1908

4.

The Evening Standard, 19 June 1908

5.

The Evening Standard, 19 June 1908

6.

‘The Scribe and the Sculptor’, British Medical Journal, 11 July 1908

7.

The Evening Standard, 23 June 1908

8.

J Epstein, ‘Letter to Francis Dodd’, September 1912. From Jacob Epstein Sculpture and Drawings, WS Maney and Son in association with The Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, 1989, p127

9.

D Hall, Modigliani, Phaidon, 1979, p11. From Modigliani and Epstein – The Pillars of Tenderness, The New Art Gallery Walsall, 2005, p18

10. J Epstein, Let There be Sculpture. An Autobiography, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1940, p61 11.

J Epstein and A Haskell, The Sculptor Speaks, William Heinemann Ltd, 1931, p87

12. HS Ede, Savage Messiah, 1972, p122 13.

J Epstein, Let There be Sculpture. An Autobiography, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1940, pp71-72

14. W Michel and C Fox, Wyndham Lewis on Art, Thames and Hudson, 1969, p57 15.

J Epstein, 1940, from Jacob Epstein Sculpture and Drawings, WS Maney and Son in association with The Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, 1989, p171

16. J Epstein, Let There be Sculpture. An Autobiography, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1940, p119 17.

HMCSS: Thorneycroft Papers c.486, letter dated 19 February 1920, from Jacob Epstein Sculpture and Drawings, WS Maney and Son in association with The Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, 1989, p210

18.

Cecil Gray quoted in Epstein, S Gardiner, Flamingo, 1993, p200

19.

J Epstein, Let There be Sculpture. An Autobiography, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1940, p122

20. J Epstein, Let There be Sculpture. An Autobiography, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1940, p15 21.

Quoted in Epstein, S Gardiner, Flamingo, 1993. From a letter

by Epstein to the Observer, 28 April 1935, p341

22. S Gardiner, Epstein, Flamingo, 1993, p474 23. Epstein Archive, The New Art Gallery Walsall. Letter from Kathleen Garman to Michael Mossesson, 3 December 1973

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The New Art Gallery Walsall