Albert Einstein

Details

Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
Albert Einstein
signed 'Epstein' (on the base of the neck)
bronze with a dark brown patina
17 in. (43.2 cm.) high, excluding base
Conceived in 1933.

Literature

J. Epstein, Let There Be Sculpture, London, 1940, pp. 94-6, another cast illustrated.
R. Black, The Art of Jacob Epstein, New York and Cleveland, 1942, no. 91, pl. 62, another cast illustrated.
J. Epstein, Let There Be Sculpture, London, 1955, pp. 77-8, another cast illustrated.
R. Buckle, Jacob Epstein Sculptor, London, 1963, p. 321, another cast illustrated.
E. Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Oxford, 1986, p. 174, no. 234, another cast illustrated.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Einstein posed for Epstein in September 1933, shortly after renouncing his citizenship and fleeing Germany. He was staying in a small beach hut on Roughton Heath in Cromer, Norfolk, at the invitation of the journalist and MP, Commander Locker-Lampson. Einstein sat for Epstein for 2 hours each day over a period of three days but left to take up a professorship at Princeton before the portrait was completed. Epstein described Einstein's 'Wild hair floating in the wind. His glance contained a mixture of the humane, the humorous, and the profound. This was a combination which delighted me. He resembled the ageing Rembrandt' (J. Epstein, Let There Be Sculpture, London, 1955, p. 77).

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