Lucian Freud

Details

Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
Lucian Freud
bronze with a light brown/gold patina; unique
27 in. (68.6 cm.) high
Conceived in 1947.

Provenance

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

Literature

R. Buckle, Jacob Epstein Sculptor, London, 1963, pp. 308-9, pl. 275.
Exhibition catalogue, Exhibition of Jacob Epstein's Work from the Collection of Mr Edward P. Schinman, New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1967, p. 90, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Exhibition of Epstein's work from the collection of Mr. Edward P. Schinman, Trenton, New Jersey State Museum, 1968, p. 90, illustrated.
E.P. and B. Schinman (eds.), Jacob Epstein A Calalogue of the Collection of Edward P. Schinman, New Jersey, 1970, p. 85, illustrated.
E. Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein, Oxford, 1986, pp. 200, 201, no. 388, plaster cast 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, September - December 1968.

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. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

André Zlattinger

azlattinger@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2074

Lot Essay

Epstein's portrait of Lucian Freud (1922 - 2011) was created in the same year that Freud, painter and grandson of Sigmund Freud, married Epstein's daughter, Kitty Garman. Epstein's portrait of his son-in-law captures the young artist's graceful yet powerful features, and a description of Freud by Deborah Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire whom Freud was later to paint, is brought to mind when she described him as having 'a sort of starry quality ... an extraordinary sort of mercurial thing. He's like something not quite like a human being, more like a will-o'-the-wisp'. Epstein's focus on the eyes and the intensity of the gaze echoes Freud's own portraits of Kitty at that time. Freud's portraits of Kitty are among his most well-known and celebrated works, and include Girl with a Kitten, 1947 (Tate, London) and Girl with Roses, 1947-48 (British Council Collection).

The present work is a unique bronze cast of the full bust portrait of artist Lucian Freud; in her book (loc. cit.) Evelyn Silber lists seven known casts of the head only. The plaster version of the full bust portrait is in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio.

More from Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale

View All