Bronze
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
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>
Visitation
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1927
actions: postures and motions
adults
Bible: New Testament
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
hands clasped
humility
people
religion and belief
standing
Virgin Mary
woman
<p>This life-size figure was intended to be one of a pair, never completed, called 'The Visitation'. This was an event recorded in the Bible, where the Virgin Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth to share with her the news that she is to give birth to Jesus. Epstein described this figure as expressing ' a humility so profound as to shame the beholder who comes to my sculpture expecting rhetoric or splendour of gesture'. When he first exhibited it he called it 'A Study' so as to diguise its content.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
25 January 2012 – 24 July 2012
2012-07-24
25 January 2012 – 24 July 2012
2012-07-24
2012-01-25
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-01-25
Rotunda
Collection based display
30 November 2012 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
30 November 2012
2012-11-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-30
Gallery 3
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
The Visitation
object: 1651 × 470 × 457 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1927
<div class="text">
<p>This life-size figure was intended to be one of a pair, but it was never completed. It tells part of the Biblical story in which the Virgin Mary, newly pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Without Mary telling them, Elizabeth and John understand that Mary’s baby is holy and recognise her as blessed by God. Jacob Epstein described this figure as expressing a ‘profound’ sense of ‘humility’ that any visitor who expected his sculpture to have ‘splendour’ should be ‘shamed’.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-12-04T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>N04238</b> THE VISITATION 1926
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 65×18 1/2×18 (165×47×46).
<br/>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1927.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by the C.A.S. at the Leicester Galleries.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Leicester Galleries, June–July 1926 (7), as ‘Study’; Arts Council, Tate Gallery, September–November 1952 (24, repr. in Illustrated Supplement, pl.16); Edinburgh Festival, August–September 1961 (71, repr. pl.9); Arts Council, Tate Gallery, November–December 1961 (28).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Haskell, 1931, pp.63, 72, 184, repr. p.63; Powell, 1932, pp.117–18, repr. p.115; Epstein, 1940, p.133, repr. p.184; <i>ibid.</i>, 1955, p.112, repr. facing p.114; John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1958, p.189, repr. pl.14; Buckle, 1963, pp.145, 153, 174, 426, repr. pls. 220–2.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Studio</i>, XCII, 1926, p.117; Black, 1942, pl.24.</p>
<p>Epstein stated of this work: ‘In 1926 in Epping Forest I modelled a life-size figure which I intended for a group to be called “The Visitation”. I can recall with pleasure how this figure looked in my little hut which I used as a studio. I should have liked it to stand amongst trees on a knoll overlooking Monk Wood. This figure stands with folded hands, and expresses a humility so profound as to shame the beholder who comes to my <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> expecting rhetoric or splendour of gesture.... When I exhibited the work at the Leicester Galleries, wishing to avoid controversy, I called it “A Study”. By this disguise I succeeded for once in evading the critics, always ready to bay and snap at a work. A subscription was raised to purchase it, and I recall that Richard Wyndham gave the proceeds of an exhibition he was holding of his own work towards its purchase for the Tate Gallery.’</p>
<p>The model was a music student who acted as secretary to John Drinkwater: her modest demeanour struck Epstein as ideal for what he had in mind. The companion figure was never completed.</p>
<p>Other casts made more recently are in the following collections: Alan and Janet Wurzburger, Baltimore, U.S.A.; anonymous loan to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; W. J. Keswick, Dumfries; at least two others in private collections 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</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults Bible: New Testament emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas hands clasped humility people religion and belief standing Virgin Mary woman