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BU We Were There Too Epstein 250816 RD www.jewsfww.london ! Jacob Epstein Jacob Epstein, the best-known sculptor associated with the Whitechapel Boys, was born in America in 1880, the son of Russian-Polish immigrants, and was therefore a slightly older member of the group. Unlike the majority of the artists or their parents discussed here, he was from a relatively affluent family and made quite a different journey of migration to London. He travelled eastwards from the Lower East Side in New York, a multicultural area, which included a large Jewish population and was a ‘melting pot’ of different communities. He travelled first to Paris, where he studied the ancient collections at the Louvre, and then arrived as a young man aged 25 in London in 1905. Soon after his arrival, Epstein began to make large-scale sculpture commissions for locations in London, using the method of direct carving. Many of these early works were considered quite shocking for several reasons – they abandoned traditional means of showing the figure in favour of styles inspired by non-Western cultures. They also included modern ideas of geometry, and often had explicit sexual content. ! During this period Epstein was closely associated with David Bomberg, Jacob Kramer and other Whitechapel Boys from the Jewish East End, and they often 1 www.jewsfww.london ! created portraits of each other. Epstein sculpted a renowned portrait head of Jacob Kramer in 1921; the bronze exists in several copies (the edition), one of which belongs to Ben Uri and one of which belongs to the Tate. Epstein described Kramer as ‘a model who seemed to be on fire. He was extraordinarily nervous. Energy seemed to leap into his hair as he sat’. The finished sculpture seems to convey some of these feelings, particularly in the wild, textured hair, though the sitter is presented in a calm pose overall, looking directly at the viewer. Jacob Kramer in return drew portraits of Epstein and one of his lithographs of the sculptor from 1930 is also in the Ben Uri Collection. In 1913 Jacob Epstein and David Bomberg travelled to Paris to meet some of Epstein’s contacts, who included some of the most modern Jewish artists working there. The two artists selected some of these works to show as part of a ‘Jewish Section’ at an important exhibition in May 1914 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, called ‘Twentieth Century Art – A Review of Modern Movements’. This section included Alfred Wolmark, Mark Gertler, Isaac Rosenberg, Clare Winsten and Jacob Kramer, alongside Epstein and Bomberg, and others. In the same year, Epstein was also a founding member of the London Group of artists, which promoted the ‘no holds barred’ ‘modern art’ in England. Kramer and Epstein were associated with Britain’s own home-grown and aggressive modernist movement, Vorticism, around 1914-15. This style was inspired by modern life and modern subjects, including machines and at the start of the First World War explored ideas of modern warfare until several of its artists and champions were killed. Jacob Epstein, who became a British citizen in 1911, was eligible to fight for Britain and joined the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (known as the Jewish Regiment), though he was absent without leave when his regiment was deployed, and suffered a nervous breakdown. Jacob continued to make public and private commissions and portraits for the rest of his career, often using Old Testament subjects for his large scale works rather than specifically Jewish subject matter. He was often exposed to anti-Semitic criticism, when the public found his modernist style too challenging. He died in 1959 and was buried in a Christian cemetery at Putney Vale in South London. His reputation as one of Britain’s greatest sculptors of the 20th Century is assured. 2 www.jewsfww.london ! Jacob Epstein – Biography Born: 1880 USA Family Origin: Russia, Poland Grew Up: 1891-1911 Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York General Notes: Modernist sculptor, creator of monuments and portraits Education: 1902-1905 Acadèmie Julian, Paris École des Beaux Arts, Paris Military Service 1917-1918 Royal Fusiliers Died: 1959 London For further information about the artist and to see further examples please go to the Ben Uri Collection website. 3 .
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