Sir Jacob Epstein (British, 1880-1959)


Third Portrait of Jackie (Ragamuffin) signed 'EPSTEIN' (at base of neck)bronze22.5cm (8 7/8in) highConceived in 1939
|ProvenanceThe Artist, by whom gifted to Abel Giandolini, the owner of The Ivy restaurant, 12 May 1948, and thence by descentPrivate Collection, MilanExhibitedLeicester Galleries, London, Fame and Promise, 1942, cat.no.144 (another cast)Leicester Galleries, London, Catalogue of an exhibition of 'Girl with the Gardenias' and other recent sculpture by Jacob Epstein, May-June 1944, cat.no.17 (as Ragamuffin, another cast)Leicester Galleries, London, 1968 (another cast)LiteratureRobert Black, The Art of Jacob Epstein, New York and Cleveland, 1942, no.242 (as Fifth portrait, dated 1938, another cast)Richard Buckle, Jacob Epstein Sculptor, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland, 1963, (ill.b&w pl.391, another cast)E.P. Schinman and B.A. Schinman (eds.), Jacob Epstein. A Catalogue of the Collection of Edward P. Schinman, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1970, p.107 (ill., another cast)Evelyn Silber, The Sculpture of Epstein with a Complete Catalogue, Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford, 1986, cat.no.309 (ill.b&w p.188) (another cast)The present work was gifted by Epstein to Abel Giandolini, the owner of The Ivy restaurant. Founded in 1917 by Giandolini, a young Italian emigré with ambitions to create one of London's best restaurants, The Ivy became a favourite haunt of both artists and actors, as well as the great and good of the day such as Winston Churchill and Duff and Diana Cooper. It is easy to imagine that the present work may have been gifted to Giandolini to settle a bill at the restaurant.