Sir Jacob Epstein

Sale, Christie's London, 13th May 1994, lot 190, where acquired by David Bowie

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd, An Exhibition of Drawings by Jacob Epstein for Les Fleurs du Mal of Charles Baudelaire, December 1938, cat. no.37;
Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Jacob Epstein Sculpture and Drawings, 16th April - 21st June 1987, cat. no.107, with tour to Whitechapel Art Gallery, London;
London, Boundary Gallery, Jacob Epstein 1880 - 1959: Bronze Sculptures, Les Fleurs du Mal Drawings and Other Works on Paper, 28th June - 3rd August 2002, cat. no.14.

The work is fully laid down on board. The sheet appears sound. There is some evidence of old adhesive and traces of an old mount around the edges of the work. There is also a small loss to the sheet in the lower right corner. There are one or two extremely tiny spots of foxing visible upon very close inspection, and some traces of light surface dirt, including a spot of staining below the lower of the central figure's right arms. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in good overall condition. The work is window mounted and presented in a gilt wooden frame, held under glass. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Renowned as a pioneer of modern British sculpture, Jacob Epstein discovered his gift for drawing long before turning to sculpture as his primary medium to express the beauty and anguish of humanity. Epstein began to draw as soon as he was able to read and fed his vivid imagination with literature and poetry from a young age. Growing up in the Jewish ghetto in the Lower East Side of New York, the young artist was fascinated by the diversity and vitality of the people that he observed in his neighbourhood; he honed his skills by sketching these characters and eventually earned enough money to pay for a fare to Paris in 1902 by illustrating Hutchins Hapgood’s book The Spirit of the Ghetto.

Epstein first came to admire Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal in 1904 as a student in Paris and was increasingly drawn to the poet’s vision of man’s struggle between good and evil that had particular resonance in the difficult years of the 1930s preceding the Second World War. A chance encounter in Paris in 1936 with George Macy, founder of the Limited Editions Club of New York, resulted in an exciting commission for the artist. Macy was impressed by Epstein’s recent series of flower paintings and invited him to illustrate a book of his choice, thus prompting Epstein to suggest Baudelaire’s poems.

The resulting series demonstrates the intensity of Epstein’s imagination and his exceptional ability to conjure compelling and dark images of the moral conflict innate in human existence. The present work was shown in an exhibition of thirty-seven drawings from the series at Arthur Tooth & Sons gallery in London in 1938. Epstein explained his motivation for the project in the accompanying catalogue: ‘Solely to satisfy a craving of my own I have made these drawings… This Bible of the modern man has long called to me, and brooding upon the powerful and subtle images evoked by long reading, a world comes forth filled with splendid and maleficent entities’ (the Artist, quoted in An Exhibition of Drawings by Jacob Epstein for ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ of Charles Baudelaire (exh. cat.), Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd, London, 1938, n.p.). Despite Epstein considering these works amongst the best in his oeuvre, the exhibition was slated by critics who reminded viewers that Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal was banned for many years after its publication in 1857 on grounds of blasphemy and obscenity. An evocative and dynamic example from the powerful series, Hymne à la Beauté is a testament to Epstein’s inexhaustible creativity and defiant ambition.