
Not on display
- Artist
- Sir Jacob Epstein 1880–1959
- Medium
- Graphite on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 457 × 559 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1928
- Reference
- N04425
Display caption
The model for this study remains unknown. It is one of many drawings of women of colour Epstein made in the summer of 1928, many of which were exhibited at the Godfrey Phillips Gallery in London later that year. Epstein is primarily known as a sculptor, but according to art historian Frank Felsenstein he was also ‘a compulsive sketcher’. He developed this interest as a child, drawing figures he had seen in city crowds. He grew up in New York, the child of Polish-Jewish parents, moving to London in 1905.
This drawing was exhibited under the title Negress in 1928. The use of the term ‘negress’, the female form of ‘negro’, was commonly used in the 1920s. It is now acknowledged as offensive. The term derives from the Latin for black. From the 18th century onwards it became associated with the now debunked pseudoscience of ‘race biology’. This discriminatory classification of people based on their skin colour has been used to justify racism.
Gallery label, July 2019
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Catalogue entry
N04425 NEGRESS 1928
Inscr. ‘Epstein’ b.r.
Black chalk, 18×22 (44·5×56).
Purchased from Godfrey Phillips (Duveen Drawings Fund) 1928.
Exh: Godfrey Phillips Gallery, October–November 1928 (39).
Repr: Hubert Wellington, Jacob Epstein, Seventy-five Drawings, 1929, pl.39; Black, 1942, pl.138.
See the note on N04424.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I
You might like
-
Sir Jacob Epstein Jacob Kramer
1921 -
Sir Jacob Epstein The Visitation
1926 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Reclining Figure
1928 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Albert Einstein
1933 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Study for ‘The Rock Drill’
c.1913 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Totem
c.1913 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Dahlias
c.1936 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Dahlias and Sunflower
c.1936 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Epping Forest
c.1933 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Reclining Nude
c.1928–31 -
Sir Jacob Epstein Jacob and the Angel
c.1940