Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)

Kathleen, bronze 1935 at Bristol Art Gallery


We recently visited Bristol Art Gallery and saw this statue of Kathleen, Epstein's second wife worked in 1935. This is the fifth of seven portrait statues of her that Epstein made and we have the second, completed in 1922, thirteen years earlier. Epstein met Kathleen Garman (1901-1979) at the Harelquin Club in 1921 and she posed for him the next day. She became his lover and later his wife. The Bristol statue is based on Renaissance artist Verrocchio's Portrait of a Lady in Florence. It reveals Epstein's fascination with historic European art as well as wider global art forms.

Epstein described the process of making in his book Let There Be Sculpture ...a quartet of harmonies, ...head, shoulders, body and hands, like music. 










Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)

Second Portrait of Kathleen 1922 at Richard Taylor Fine Art

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.

Click the link below for more details of this work. 
https://www.richardtaylorfineart.com/artist/epstein/second-portrait-of-kathleen-1922