Sir Jacob Epstein

From Grove Art Online: British sculptor of American birth. Although he spent his childhood in New York, Epstein defined his identity as an artist only after moving to London in 1905. He had studied at the Arts Students League in New York before moving to the Academie Julien in Paris. Early in his career, Epstein's prime loyalties lay with an awkward blend of Classical, Renaissance and Rodinesque sources. His shifting attitude towards the machine age is summarized in the various stages of "Rock Drill", and after the war he moved away from angular semi-abstraction to develop a more figurative and warmly humanist vision. In 1954 he was knighted. Alongside his portraiture, embracing notable figures from Joseph Conrad to Winston Churchill, Epstein continuted to carve on a monumental scale with much of his earlier interest in brusque distortion and brazen sexuality. Some of his finest later carvings were executed for public locations. See file for full citation.