Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
| Artist Name | Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) |
|---|---|
| Title | Second Portrait of Kathleen 1922 |
| Description | This stunning British bronze sculpture is by world famous sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein. It was conceived in 1922 and is the second portrait of Kathleen Garman (1901-1979), Epstein's lover then later second wife (in 1955 after his first wife Margaret's death) and mother of three of his children. It was made the year after they began a relationship and Kathleen was Epstein's model and mistress. His first wife, Margaret, tolerated Epstein's affairs and even raised his two other children but in 1923, Margaret invited Kathleen to her house and shot her in the shoulder with a pearl-handled pistol. Epstein paid Kathleen's hospital bills and persuaded her not to press charges against Margaret, lest it erupt into a public scandal. This beautiful bronze work depicts Kathleen, mouth open, looking directly at Epstein and the viewer, her hair flowing down behind her shoulders. The green patina is stunning and the carving true to the material. There is another sculpture of Kathleen much later in 1935 now at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. This is a superb sculpture and an excellent example of Epstein's work, especially in relation to Kathleen at the beginning of a lifelong love. Signed to sitter's left shoulder |
| Provenance | Sale, Sotheby's, London, 9 July 1969, lot 105. |
| Size | 0 x 15 inches |
| Frame | Sits on black marble plinth, 18 1/4 inches high on this. |
| Condition | Good condition. |
| Biography | Jacob Epstein (1880-1959). Jacob Epstein made his name as a sculptor of monuments and portraits, and as an occasional painter and illustrator. In his lifetime he championed many of the concepts central to modernist sculpture, including 'truth to material', direct carving, and inspiration from so-called primitive art, all of which became central to twentieth-century practice. Epstein was born on 10 November 1880 in New York, of Polish-Jewish parentage. He attended art classes at the Art Students League c.1896 and then went to night school c.1899 where he began sculpting under George Grey Bernard. On the proceeds of illustrating Hutchins Hapgood's The Spirit of the Ghetto (1902) he was able to go to Paris and spent six months at the École des Beaux-Arts, and afterwards studied at the Académie Julian. Epstein settled in London in 1905 and became a British citizen in 1907. He met Picasso, Brancusi, Modigliani in Paris in 1912-13. He then returned to England and worked near Hastings from 1913 to 1916. Epstein became a founding member of the London Group in 1913, and that same year had his first solo show at the Twenty-One Gallery, Adelphi, London. Thereafter he exhibited mainly at the Leicester Galleries. After 1916 he lived and worked in London for the rest of his life. He briefly visited New York in 1927, to attend his one-man show at the Ferragil Gallery. The Arts Council honoured him with a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1953. He was knighted in 1954 and died in London on 19 August 1959. Despite being married to, in 1906, and continuing to live with Margaret Dunlop, Epstein had a number of relationships with other women that brought him his five children. In 1921, Epstein began the longest of these relationships, with Kathleen Garman, one of the Garman sisters, mother of his three middle children, which continued until his death. Margaret tolerated Epstein's infidelities and even helped rais some of the children, but evidently, Margaret's tolerance did not extend to Epstein's relationship with Kathleen Garman, as in 1922 Margaret shot and wounded Kathleen in the shoulder. Margaret Epstein died in 1947 and he married Kathleen Garman in 1955. Their eldest daughter, also named Kathleen but known as "Kitty", married the painter Lucian Freud in 1948. Kathleen Esther Garman, Lady Epstein (15 May 1901 – August 1979) was the third of the seven Garman sisters, who were high-profile members of artistic circles in mid-20th century London, renowned for their beauty and scandalous behaviour. She was the model and longtime mistress of British/American sculptor Jacob Epstein, and eventually his second wife. They met in 1921 and immediately began a relationship that lasted until Epstein's death and produced three of Epstein's five children. Their daughter, Kitty Garman, was the first wife of Lucian Freud; their son was the artist Theodore Garman. Kathleen Garman was born on 15 May 1901 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, the daughter of Dr Walter Chancellor Garman (1860–1923), a general practitioner, and his wife, Margaret Frances Magill. She was one of nine children, seven sisters and two brothers. The family lived at Oakeswell Hall, Wednesbury. Kathleen took music lessons at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, and art classes in Birmingham with her sister Mary. In 1919 the sisters decided to run away to London. Kathleen was employed by Harrods, helping with the horses that pulled the delivery carriages, and also worked as an artist's model. Mary drove a delivery van. Shocked by their behaviour, their father eventually decided to support them. They rented a studio apartment at 13 Regent Square, Camden, and enrolled in a private art school. At night they frequented West End clubs such as The Gargoyle, The Harlequin, and The Cave of the Golden Calf. It was at the Harlequin that Kathleen met the 40-year-old Epstein, who invited her to his table and asked her to pose for him. Mary ended up marrying the South African poet Roy Campbell. Kathleen, Mary, and Lorna were all to become bohemian members of what became known as the Bloomsbury Group. In 1936 Kathleen was photographed by Gordon Anthony. In 1921, Kathleen began a relationship with the married sculptor Jacob Epstein, becoming his model and his mistress. Her father, who strongly disapproved of the affair, cut her out of his will when he died in 1923. In 1923, Epstein's jealous wife Margaret invited Kathleen to her house and shot her in the shoulder with a pearl-handled pistol. Epstein paid Kathleen's hospital bills and persuaded her not to press charges against Margaret, lest it erupt into a public scandal. After this incident, Margaret encouraged Jacob into multiple affairs in the hope he would tire of Kathleen. While Epstein and his wife were childless, Margaret raised as their own his children from other liaisons, his daughter Peggy Jean with Dorothy (Meum) Lindsell-Stewart and his son Jackie (b. 1934) with Isabel Nicholas. Kathleen and Epstein continued to see each other, having three children together in 1924, 1926, and 1929. They married in June 1955, in a private ceremony at Fulham Register Office, London, eight years after Margaret's death. Upon their marriage, Kathleen became Lady Epstein and his sole beneficiary. After his death in 1959, she donated his works of art to the Israel Museum. Other art pieces by Epstein were incorporated into the Garman Ryan Collection, together with the works of Sally Ryan, an American sculptor who left her artworks and $50,000 in cash to Kathleen in 1968. She died in August 1979. |
| Price | £18000 |
