Jacob Kramer 1892-1962
Portrait of Jacob Epstein, 1930
lithograph on paper
48.5 x 40.5 cm
Framed 70 x 62.5 cm
Framed 70 x 62.5 cm
signed (lower right) 'Kramer'
2016-17
© The William Roberts Society, London
Photo: Ben Uri
Kramer had sat to sculptor Jacob Epstein for his bust in 1921, and Kramer's lithograph of Epstein is a reciprocal likeness. The two men had met shortly after Epstein's arrival...
Kramer had sat to sculptor Jacob Epstein for his bust in 1921, and Kramer's lithograph of Epstein is a reciprocal likeness. The two men had met shortly after Epstein's arrival in England and formed a lasting friendship. Kramer said of Epstein, 'If I couldn't be myself at all, I should want to be Epstein - for his bigness and fearlessness of thought. No matter what happens to him, or his work, he remains himself [...] The man is greater than his work. I'd like to be greater than my work so that my work would be all the greater'. (Yorkshire Post, 7.11.1931).
Provenance
Presented by Dr Wendy Baron in memory of the late Hugh BaronExhibitions
1984 Jacob Kramer, Reassessed, Ben Uri Art Gallery
2019 Mark Gertler: Paintings from the Luke Gertler Bequest & Selected Important UK Collections, Ben Uri Gallery
Literature
Walter Schwabe and Julia Weiner, eds., Jewish Artists: the Ben Uri Collection - Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture (London: Ben Uri Art Society in association with Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, 1994), p. 64.;Frances Spalding, intro., Jacob Kramer reassessed (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 1984)
