Bronze
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<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>
Esther
Presented by Howard Bliss 1945
<p>During the 1930s Epstein modelled over one hundred portraits ranging from commissions of eminent men to uncommissioned busts of favourite models. Esther was a nightclub entertainer and a professional artist's model. The vigorously modelled surfaces of this bronze bust are an example of the great vitality Epstein managed to infuse into his work at this time, whether modelled portrait busts or imaginative stone carvings.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2021</em></p>
sculpture bronze
13 October 2014 – 4 October 2015
2015-10-04
13 October 2014 – 4 October 2015
2015-10-04
2014-10-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-10-13
Spaces of Black Modernism
Collection based display
31 October 2022
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 3
Collection based display
Esther
object: 533 × 635 × 254 mm, 29.3 kg
Presented by Howard Bliss 1945
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<p>Esther was a nightclub performer and professional artists’ model in London. During the 1930s, Jacob Epstein sculpted over one hundred portraits, ranging from commissions of people in the public eye to busts of his favourite models that were not made to sell. He modelled the works in clay before casting them in bronze. In this piece and others from the period, we can see the marks of his fingers and tools in the heavily worked surface of the sculpture</p>
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Online caption
2023-12-04T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
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<p>
<b>N05579</b> ESTHER 1930<br/> <br/>Not inscribed.<br/>Bronze, 21×25×10 (53×63·5×25·5).<br/>Presented by Howard Bliss 1945.<br/>
<i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Howard Bliss from the Leicester Galleries 1931.<br/>
<i>Exh:</i> Leicester Galleries, February 1931 (4); <i>Jacob Epstein and Matthew Smith</i>, Temple Newsam, Leeds, July–September 1942 (43); Arts Council, Tate Gallery, September–November 1952 (32).<br/>
<i>Lit:</i> Haskell, 1931, p.190, repr. facing p.55; Buckle, 1963, pp.174, 426, repr. pl.266.<br/>Modelled from a night-club entertainer whose sister, Rebecca (repr. Buckle, <i>op. cit.</i>, pl.265), also sat to the sculptor. Buckle calls <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N05579" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N05579');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N05579</span></a> ‘Betty (Esther)’ to distinguish it from later busts of the sculptor's youngest daughter, Esther, made in 1944, 1948 and 1949 (repr. Buckle, <i>op. cit.</i>, pls.449–55, 482, 509–11). Several casts exist of the Tate Gallery bronze.<br/>
<b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
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Catalogue entry
2021-04-09T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY