Jacob Epstein: Portrait Sculptor

One of the 20th century’s leading sculptors, Jacob Epstein placed portraiture at the centre of this work. This display explores his achievement and practice through busts of artists, writers, politicians and other leading figures selected from the National Portrait Gallery Collection.

Epstein made portrait busts throughout his entire career. Ranging in date from 1916 to 1951, the works in the display include some of Epstein’s most celebrated portraits, notably his busts of Joseph Conrad, T.S Eliot, Vaughan Williams and George Bernard Shaw.