Metadata: Correspondence between Jacob Epstein and his family with photographs of the artist, his family, his studio and his works
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- Tate Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Tate Archive
- Postal address:
- Tate BritainMillbankLondonUnited KingdomSW1P 4RG
- Web address:
- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive
- Reference number:
- TGA 8716
- Title:
- Correspondence between Jacob Epstein and his family with photographs of the artist, his family, his studio and his works
- Title (official language):
- Correspondence between Jacob Epstein and his family with photographs of the artist, his family, his studio and his works
- Creator/accumulator:
- Epstein, Jacob
- Peggy Jean
- Date(s):
- 1948/1970
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 2 boxes
- Scope and content:
- This collection contains fifty three letters from Jacob Epstein to Peggy Jean, 1948-59; one from Epstein to Norman Hornstein, 1954; two from Epstein to Leda Hornstein, 1948 and 1951; one from Epstein to Jackie, 1948; four from Kathleen to Peggy Jean, 1948-69; and two from Jackie to Peggy Jean, 1950 and 1970. In addition there are one hundred photographs of Jacob Epstein, his family, his studio and his works, 1930s-50s. Epstein usually dated his letters with the day and month, only occasionally the year. Some of the letters have been annotated in biro with suggested dates by Peggy Jean.When no date is given, a date is suggested from the information in the letter or from reference to a work or a postmark.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Jacob Epstein was born on New York's Lower East Side in 1880, to Polish Jewish immigrant parents. He studied there at the Arts Students' League from the age of thirteen. In 1902 he left to study sculpture in Paris before moving to London in 1905 and taking British citizenship a few years later. In 1907-8 Epstein was commissioned to produce the eighteen naturalistic figures carved into the façade of the British Medical Association Building on the Strand. The "immorality" of these figures caused outrage and Epstein became a household name. Epstein's career was dogged with controversy. In 1911-12 he worked with his friend Eric Gill to carve Oscar Wilde's tomb in Paris, which was also unpopular. However, whilst in Paris he developed friendships with Brancusi and Modigliani. His exhibition of 'Rock Drill' at the London Group show of 1915 shocked both critics and the public with its blatant sexual point and cruel and futuristic theme. Between 1907 and 1915 Epstein produced bronze portraits of infants and small children, large scale commissions and stone and marble works. He was the first sculptor to take up Gill's advocacy of the direct carving of stone and to talk about truth to materials. His drawings of children show him as one of the most robust draughtsmen of the period, and he had begun to collect African and Oceanic artifacts. Epstein joined up during the First World War, but his work after showed little response to his experiences. After the war comparatively few public commissions came his way, although his notoriety and harassment at the hands of the popular press in no way diminished. His most successful piece at this time was 'Rima', his memorial to W.H. Hudson in Hyde Park in 1925. Other large-scale pieces at this time include 'Jacob and the Angel', 'Lazarus', 'Adam' and 'Ecce Homo'. Epstein's personal life was as controversial as his artistic one. His first wife was Margaret Dunlop who was ten years his senior. In 1918 his eldest daughter Peggy-Jean was born to one of Epstein's models Meum, although she was brought up by Margaret. In 1921 Epstein met Kathleen Garman who became his long-standing mistress and mother to three of his children. After Margaret's death in 1947, Kathleen moved in with Epstein, although they did not marry until 1955. Epstein received an honorary degree from Oxford, and in 1954 he was knighted. The 1950s also brought some important public commissions, including 'Jan Smuts' in Parliament Square and 'Social Consciousness' in Philadelphia. In 1955 he got a chance to carve a summation on his views on war when he accepted a commission from the Trades Union Council to create a war memorial. During 1958 Epstein was confined to hospital suffering from thrombosis and pleurisy. He lived for another year, working on an array of portraits and the 'Bowater House Group' bronze, at Edinburgh Gate, London, commissioned by Sir Harold Samuel. Jacob Epstein died in August 1959.
- Peggy Jean, born in 1918, was very close. She would help him prepare the clay for modelling in his studio and when a little older, would accompany him everywhere - the theatre or the Café Royal - meeting his models and fellow artists. In 1937 in Paris, Peggy Jean met Norman Hornstein, an American medical student, and they were married a year later. Peggy Jean had two children, Leda born in 1939 and Ian born in 1941. From 1942 Peggy Jean and her children lived with Epstein at 18 Hyde Park Gate, until they moved to the United States in 1946. After Peggy Jean went to America Epstein's letters kept her in touch with the progress of his work; sitters and models; commissions and exhibitions; his criticisms of the art world and modern art; news of family and friends and his misfortunes and triumphs. Peggy Jean was joined in America by her younger brother Jackie at Hatteras, North Carolina, after the death of Mrs Margaret Epstein in 1947. Peggy Jean died in September 2010.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Epstein, Jacob
- Garman, Kathleen
- Hornstein, Leda
- Hornstein, Norman
- Hornstein, Peggy Jean
- Subject terms:
- Art
- Art--Artists
- Correspondence
- Access, restrictions:
- Open
- Finding aids:
-
Online catalogue.
Some items from the collection have been digitised.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://archive.tate.org.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqServer=tdc-calm&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27TGA%208716%27)
- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive/tga-8716/correspondence-between-jacob-epstein-and-his-family-with-photographs-of-the-artist-his
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25