TIGER LILLIES, c.1930-6
signed Epstein lower left
watercolour on paper
55.9 x 43.2cm (84.5 x 69cm framed)

Provenance
Private Collection
Thence by descent to the present owner

Jacob Epstein is most well-known for his ‘primitive’ approach and ‘direct carving’ to sculpture and as one of London’s most prominent artists of interwar Britain. Born in New York to Polish-Jewish parents, he made London his home in 1905 and took British citizenship in 1907.

The present watercolour reveals a lesser known side of the artist. In 1933, Epstein was commissioned by the Dutch Old Master dealers, Ascher & Velker, to paint twenty flower studies from his studio in Epping Forest. Becoming entirely absorbed with the project, he recalled in his autobiography, ‘I said I would paint twenty and in the end I painted sixty. Not content with this, I went on painting, giving up sculpture for the time being, and painted three hundred more. I lived and painted flowers. My rooms were piled with flowers, and this was a wonderful and colourful period’ (Jacob Epstein, Epstein: An Autobiography, London 1955, pp.165-6). The series included poppies, sunflowers, roses, dahlias and more. ‘Tiger Lillies’ bursts at the edges like colourful fireworks, capturing the sensory experience rather than botanical accuracy.

Tate Britain holds two of his most striking and controversial works, Rock Drill (1913-15) and the monumental alabaster sculpture, Jacob and the Angel (1940-41). London landmarks such as the Memorial to W.H. Hudson (Rima) in Hyde Park (1925), Night and Day (1928-9) for St James' Underground, Madonna and Child (1950-52) in Cavendish Square are all part of the London fabric.