Heroic Torso; from Liverpool Resurgent, Lewis's Store, Liverpool

Details

Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
Heroic Torso; from Liverpool Resurgent, Lewis's Store, Liverpool
bronze with a brown patina; unique
84 in. (213 cm.) high
Conceived in 1954.

Provenance

Acquired by Edward P. Schinman between 1960 and 1967, and by descent.

Literature

R. Buckle, Jacob Epstein Sculptor, London, 1963, pp. 366-7, 390-2, pls. 579, 581, 600, 619-20, illustrated, and full figure illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Exhibition of Jacob Epstein's Work from the Collection of Mr Edward P. Schinman, New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1967, p. 97, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Exhibition of Epstein's work from the collection of Mr. Edward P. Schinman, Trenton, New Jersey State Museum, 1968, p. 97, illustrated.
E.P. and B. Schinman (eds.), Jacob Epstein A Catalogue of the Collection of Edward P. Schinman, New Jersey, 1970, p. 79, illustrated. Exhibition catalogue, Miami, University of Miami, Lowe Art Museum, Jacob Epstein: Sculpture, watercolours & drawings from the collection of Edward P. Schinman, 1971, no. 1, illustrated on cover. E. Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Oxford, 1986, p. 218, no. 476, pl. 42, full figure illustrated.

Exhibited

New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Exhibition of Jacob Epstein's Work from the Collection of Mr Edward P. Schinman, February - April 1967.
Trenton, New Jersey State Museum, Exhibition of Epstein's work from the collection of Mr. Edward P. Schinman, October - December 1968. Miami, University of Miami, Lowe Art Museum, Jacob Epstein: Sculpture, watercolours & drawings from the collection of Edward P. Schinman, October - November 1971, no. 1: this exhibition travelled to New York, Danenberg-Roman Galleries, December 1971.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Sale room notice

Please note that this lot should be marked with an STAR symbol in the printed catalogue, and as such import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price, in addition to the usual 20% VAT on the Buyer’s Premium.

Please note that this lot should be marked with a filled square in the printed catalogue and as such the lot will be removed to an off-site warehouse at the close of business on the day of the sale – free storage applies until 5pm on 27th December 2013.

Lot Essay

In 1954 F.J. Marquis, First Baron Woolton, commissioned the Liverpool Resurgent, a full-length heroic bronze figure to stand at the porticoed entrance of Lewis's Store in Liverpool. The old store had been destroyed on 3 May 1941 and Epstein's figure, which is standing on the prow of a ship, represented 'Liverpool rising from the flames of war', according to the Liverpool Echo after its unveiling on 20 November 1956 (see E. Silber, loc. cit.).

The present work is a unique head and shoulders bronze of the Liverpool Resurgent. Epstein modeled the gigantic sculpture in sections in his Hyde Park Studio, and the final full-length bronze was assembled at the Royal College of Art.

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