Bronze
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-jacob-epstein-1061" aria-label="More by Sir Jacob Epstein" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Jacob Epstein</a>
Albert Einstein
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1934
adults
body
educational and scientific
Einstein, Albert
head / face
individuals: male
man, old
named individuals
people
portraits
scientist
work and occupations
<p>The famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) fled Germany in 1933, and was in hiding in North Norfolk when Epstein made this portrait bust.' However, Einstein left to take up a professorship at Princeton before it was completed. Epstein later described Einstein’s ‘wild hair floating in the wind’ and wrote that ‘his glance contained a mixture of the humane, the humorous, and the profound. This was a combination that delighted me. He resembled the ageing Rembrandt’. The famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) fled Germany in 1933, and was in hiding in North Norfolk when Epstein made this portrait bust.'</p><p><em>Gallery label, January 2024</em></p>
sculpture bronze
1 January 2001
1 August 2009 – 28 February 2027
2027-02-28
2009-08-01
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
2001-01-01
Long loan to V&A
Loan-out
3 May 2004 – 30 August 2004
2004-08-30
3 May 2004
2004-05-03
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2004-05-03
Turbine Hall (heads)
Collection based display
1 July 2006 – 30 June 2009
2009-06-30
30 October 2006 – 30 June 2009
2009-06-30
2006-10-30
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
2006-07-01
Victoria & Albert Museum
Loan-out
14 September 2013 – 24 February 2014
2014-02-24
14 September 2013 – 24 February 2014
2014-02-24
2013-09-14
Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (Norwich, UK)
2013-09-14
Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia
Loan-out
Albert Einstein
object: 536 × 293 × 254 mm, 28 kg
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1934
<div class="text">
<p>The famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) fled Germany in 1933, and was in hiding in North Norfolk when Epstein made this <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait">portrait</a> bust.' However, Einstein left to take up a professorship at Princeton before it was completed. Epstein later described Einstein’s ‘wild hair floating in the wind’ and wrote that ‘his glance contained a mixture of the humane, the humorous, and the profound. This was a combination that delighted me. He resembled the ageing Rembrandt’. The famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) fled Germany in 1933, and was in hiding in North Norfolk when Epstein made this <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait">portrait</a> bust.'</p>
</div>

Display caption
2024-01-16T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04754</b> ALBERT EINSTEIN 1933
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 17×11×10 (43×28×25).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1934.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons, December 1933 (not numbered); R.A., 1934 (1593); Arts Council, Tate Gallery, September–November 1952 (34); Arts Council, Tate Gallery, November–December 1961 (34), incorrectly dated 1932.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Epstein, 1940, p.94, repr. facing p.86; <i>ibid.</i>, 1955, p.77, repr. facing p.71; Buckle, 1963, pp.125, 170, 206, 337, 416, 427, repr. pl.320.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Royal Academy Illustrated</i>, 1934, p.130; Black, 1942, p.62.</p>
<p>Professor Albert Einstein (1879–1955), the mathematician and physicist, originator of the Special Theory of Relativity 1905, Laws of the Photoelectric Effect 1905, and the General Theory of Relativity 1917.</p>
<p>Modelled at a refugee camp near Cromer to which Einstein had fled in 1933 when there were rumours of his intended assassination in Berlin. Epstein described the sittings (<i>op. cit.</i>) and noted Einstein's resemblance to the ageing Rembrandt. He added that the work had not been carried to completion when Einstein had to leave for America. He was Professor at Princeton University 1933–55.</p>
<p>Other casts are in the Science Museum, the University of Liverpool, the City Art Gallery, Birmingham, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and a number in private collections, including at least six in the U.S.A.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults body educational and scientific Einstein, Albert head / face individuals: male man, old named individuals people portraits scientist work and occupations