Sir Jacob Epstein

Biographical Chronology
1880 Born of Russian-Polish parents in Hester Street, East Side, New
York.
1888-1900 Made many drawings of New York life and Jewish types, and
illustrated 'The Spirit of the Ghetto' by Hutchins Hapgood. Began
sculpture at night classes under George Grey Barnard.
1902 Hapgood's book published. Used the fees for the illustrations to
pay his fare to Paris. Studied first at the 'Ecole des Beaux Arts' and
then at, Julian's.
1905 Moved to London. Took a studio at 219 Stanhope Street, Camden
Town. Visited New York, but returned at once and took a studio at
Fulham.
1907 Commissioned to carve 18 figures for the British Medical Association's
building in Agar Street, Strand, London. Moved to Cheyne Walk.
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1908 Acute controversy in the press about the carvings for the BMA
building. Received his first portrait commissions.
1911 Commissioned to carve the tomb of Oscar Wilde for the Pere
Lachaise cemetery, Paris.
1912-13 In Paris for the erection of the Wilde Tomb. Met Picasso,
Brancusi, Modigliani and Paul Guillaume. Returned to England and
settled at Pett Level, near Hastings, where he carved 'Venus', three
groups of birds, three flenite carvings, the marble 'Mother and Child'
and 'Cursed be the Day Wherein I was Born'.
1913 Original member of the London Group, where 'Rock Drill' (in
plaster) was first exhibited. First one-man show at the Twenty One
Gallery, Adelphi, London.
1917 'Venus' exhibited at the first Leicester Galleries exhibition.
1919 'Christ', begun in 1917, completed.
1925 'Rima', the memorial to W. H. Hudson, begun in Epping Forest in
1924, completed and unveiled in Hyde Park.
1926 'The Visitation' executed in Epping Forest.
1927 'Madonna and Child', begun in 1926 in London, completed. Visited
America, where he executed three portraits. One-man show in New
York.
1928-29 'Day' and 'Night' carvings for the new Underground Headquarters
building, 55 Broadway, Westminster.
1930-31 Made a series of drawings for the Old Testament.
1931 'Genesis', begun in 1929, completed.
1933 Painted a series of watercolours of Epping Forest. This was followed
by a series of flower paintings.
1935 The carving 'Behold the Man' first exhibited. The Southern
Rhodesian Government acquired the British Medical Association's building
and announced that the statues were to be removed. Further protests
in the press secured their reprieve. Sickert resigned from the Royal
Academy because the President refused to sign a petition against their
removal.
1937 Owing to partial decay of stonework, the statues were mutilated.
'Consummatum Est' completed and exhibited.
1938 Made a series of drawings for Baudelaire's 'Les Fleurs du Mai'.
1939 'Adam', begun in 1938, completed.
1941 'Jacob and the Angel'.
1943 'Girl with the Gardenias'.
1945 'Lucifer'.
1949 'Lazarus'.
1951 'Youth Advances' (now in Manchester City Art Gallery) commissioned
in 1950 by the Arts Council for the Festival of Britain 1951,
exhibited at the South Bank Exhibition. 'Madonna and Child' begun
for a site on the north side of Cavendish Square, London, owned by the
Convent of the Holy Child Jesus.
1955 'Social Consciousness', Fairmont Park, Philadelphia.
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1956 'Bishop Woods Memorial', Litchfield Cathedral. 'Field Marshal
Smith', Parliament Square, Westminster.
1957 'Lewis Building', Liverpool, an overlife size figure and 13 bas relief
panels. 'Blake Memorial', Westminster Abbey.
1957-8 'St Michael and the Angel'.
1958-9 'Bowater House Group'. Five figures in bronze.
Died London, 1959.