- Artist
- Sir Jacob Epstein 1880–1959
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- Object: 260 × 216 × 248 mm, 16 kg
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
- Reference
- N05689
Catalogue entry
N05689 THE RT. HON. ERNEST BEVIN 1943
Not inscribed.
Bronze, 10 1/4×8 1/2×9 3/4 (26×22×25).
Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
Exh: National War Pictures, R.A., October–November 1945 (1041); Arts Council, Tate Gallery, September–November 1952 (43).
Lit: Epstein, 1955, p.230, repr. facing p.163; Buckle, 1963, pp.276–8, 428, repr. pl.425.
The Rt. Hon. Ernest Bevin (1881–1951), the outstanding Trade Union leader 1910–40 and Labour M.P. for Central Wandsworth 1940–50 and for East Woolwich 1950–1. He was Minister of Labour and National Service 1940–5, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1945–51.
This bust, of which only one cast appears to have been made, was commissioned by the Ministry of Information in 1943 for a nominal sum and became one of the most popular of a series of portrait busts of war leaders executed by the sculptor.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I