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Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959) Albert Einstein 53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base) (Conceived in 1933) image 1
Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959) Albert Einstein 53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base) (Conceived in 1933) image 2
Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959) Albert Einstein 53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base) (Conceived in 1933) image 3
Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959) Albert Einstein 53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base) (Conceived in 1933) image 4
Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959) Albert Einstein 53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base) (Conceived in 1933) image 5
Property from the Collection of Shari Lewis
Lot 71*,AR

Sir Jacob Epstein
(British, 1880-1959)
Albert Einstein 53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base)

18 June 2025, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £51,200 inc. premium

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Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959)

Albert Einstein
signed 'Epstein' (to the back of the neck)
bronze with a brown/green patina on a stone base
53.3 cm. (21 in.) high (including base)
Conceived in 1933

Footnotes

Provenance
Mary and Jack D. Tarcher Collection, New York, by family descent to
Shari Lewis Collection, Beverly Hills, by family descent to
Judith (née Tarcher) Krantz, Bel Air
Thence by family descent to the present owner
Private Collection, Colorado

Exhibited
London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Watercolours of Epping Forest, December 1933 (another cast)

Literature
Richard Buckle, Jacob Epstein Sculptor, Faber & Faber, London, 1963, p.206-207, cat.no.320 (ill.b&w, another cast)
Evelyn Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1986, p.174, cat.no.234 (ill.b&w, another cast)

In 1933, Einstein fled Nazi persecution in Germany and took refuge in North Norfolk on the invitation of the eccentric Conservative MP and former naval officer, Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson. Einstein spent three weeks that September living in a cabin on Roughton Heath, with armed guards stationed outside. And it was whilst staying here that he met with and posed for the artist Sir Jacob Epstein, one of the leading portrait sculptors of the 20th century.

When recollecting their meeting in 1933, Epstein described Einstein's 'wild hair floating in the wind' and recalled 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'. (Jacob Epstein, Let There Be Sculpture, London, 1955, p.77).

Other casts of this bust are included in the collections of the Tate, the National Galleries of Scotland and the Fitzwilliam Museum.

We are grateful to Evelyn Silber for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

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