Jacob Kramer (1892-1962) (1921)

This bronze portrait bust is of Jacob Epstein’s friend Jacob Kramer (1892–1962). He was a Ukrainian-born artist who had settled in Leeds in 1900. Epstein asked Kramer to sit for him on 29 November 1920 in return for him doing the same. Epstein said later that his subject ‘seemed to be on fire. He was extraordinarily nervous. Energy seemed to leap into his hair as he sat, and sometimes he would be shaken by queer tremblings like ague. I would try to calm him, so as to get on with the work.’ Other casts exist at Leeds Art Gallery  and at the Ben Uri Art Gallery, London (2003-1) – acquired at Bonhams, London from the collection of Edward P. Schinman. It was to have been used for the figure of St John depicting the biblical scene, ‘The Descent from the Cross’, which was never carried out. The Weeping Woman (1922), a cast of which is at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery was intended for the same group.

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