Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)

Isabel Rawsthorne (1912-1992) was a powerful muse for both Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon. In the 1930s Giacometti sculpted bronze
busts of Isabel and she proved to be a major influence for his Grandes Figures. During the 1960s Isabel became a close companion of Bacon and he painted several portraits of her. In fact Bacon painted more small heads of Isabel than of anyone other than himself.
Rawsthorne was also a close friend of Michel Leiris and 'for a time the lover of the radical writer Georges Bataille' (see R. Calvocoressi, Francis Bacon: Portraits and Heads, Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland, p. 83). Her third husband was the composer Alan Rawsthorne.

Special Notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Provenance

Purchased from Lady Epstein in 1963.

Literature

E. Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Oxford, 1987, p. 171, no. 221, another cast illustrated, as 'First Portrait of Isobel'.