Let there be Sculpture - The Life and Work of Jacob Epstein

Lecture by Monica Bohm-Duchen

The Arts Society Horsham 12 February 2025

“Let there be Sculpture” is the title of Jacob Epstein’s autobiography.  Was it a plea, a pledge or a pronouncement of Epstein’s own audacious vision of modern art knocking on the door of the British establishment?  

In this fascinating lecture Monica Bohm-Duchen charts the intriguing and controversial life and work of Britain’s most criticised modern artist.  Born in 1880 in New York City of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Epstein seemed determined from the start to embark on a non-traditional presentation of self.  As an art student he raised funds through book illustrations to travel to Europe.  In 1905, Epstein arrived in London after spending an important period in Paris.  Epstein’s ambition to carve out his name in an avant-garde movement that is anti-naturalistic but rooted in ancient and African tribal tradition was bold and visionary.  His early work of 18 nude sculptures for the British Medical Association at The Strand and Oscar Wilde’s tomb in Paris provoked outrage on grounds of obscenity.  But these were just shapes of things to come!  

The furore amounted to the most vociferous xenophobic attacks.  As an immigrant Jew this must have felt an outright rejection by the British establishment.  In his riposte, Epstein produced sculptures that became a powerful memento of the time - “The Rock Drill” (1913) with its lament of a robotic future for humanity and the “Torso in Metal from the Rock Drill” bearing witness to the horror of the First World War.  The interwar years continued to be provocative and Epstein’s work was debated in Parliament and frequently vandalised.  His personal life was marred by scandals of ex-marital affairs and the tragedy of losing two of his adult children in one year to depression and suicide.

There was a proliferation of post-second world war commissions such as the “Madonna and Child” (1953) for a Catholic convent at Cavendish Square in London and the rebuilding project at Coventry Cathedral.  By now, Epstein had important sponsors like Basil Spence and young followers including Henry Moore. He was knighted in 1954 and died in 1959.

While controversy is still synonymous with the name Epstein, today much of his monolithic work around London and other cities, like a well assimilated immigrant, is here to stay.  Whatever had been said of Epstein being “with us but not of us” is long erased.  The sense of arrival of an immigrant Jew is complete.