First Portrait of Lydia

Details

Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
First Portrait of Lydia
bronze with a green patina
20½ in. (52 cm.) high
Conceived in 1929-30.

Literature

A. Haskell, The Sculptor Speaks, Jacob Epstein to Arnold Haskell. A Series of Conversations on Art, London, 1931, p. 190.
L.B. Powell, Jacob Epstein, London, 1932, another cast illustrated.
J. Epstein, Let There Be Sculpture: An Autobiography, London, 1940, p. 72, another cast illustrated. R. Black, The Art of Jacob Epstein, New York and Cleveland, 1942, p. 238, no. 157, another cast illustrated.
R. Buckle, Jacob Epstein Sculptor, London, 1963, p. 174, pl. 268, another cast illustrated.
E. Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Oxford, 1986, p. 166, no. 193, another cast illustrated.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

André Zlattinger

azlattinger@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2074

Lot Essay

Lydia was a waitress at Epstein's favourite Chinese restaurant on Wardour Street where, as an alternative to the cinema or the music hall, he liked to spend a relaxing evening (see S. Gardiner, Epstein: Artist Against the Establishment, London, 1992, p. 315). Epstein made three busts of her between 1929 and 1934.

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