Dimensions: 53 x 72 cm
Signed p.d.: 'H. Epstein'
on the painter's loom a paper exhibition and transport sticker, on the frame a sticker of the DELF framing studio from Paris
Origins
private collection, Warsaw
Exhibited
Paris-Marseille, de la Canebière à Montparnasse, Musée Montparnasse, Paris, February 14, 2003 - February 15, 2004 (not included in catalog)
Biography
Studied painting for a time in Munich. Around 1911, he moved permanently to Paris, where he attended one of the artists' studios in Montparnasse. He was friends with Utrill, Chaim Soutin and Amadeo Modigliani. He exhibited at the Independent Salons (1921-23, 1925, 1928), as well as at the Autumn Salon in 1921 and the Tuilerian Salon in 1927-31. At first he was primarily interested in Post-Impressionism - the syntheticism of Paul Gauguin and the Ecole de Pont-Aven. Later he entered the circle of Fauvist painters - André Derain, Maurice Vlaminck and Raoul Dufy, as well as Pablo Picasso and Susanne Valadon. In the paintings of 1915-20, the influences of Cézanne and Cubism are palpable, combined with inspiration from Fauvism and Expressionism. In the 1920s and 1930s, Epstein became increasingly dynamic in his forms, introduced sharp color and chiaroscuro contrasts, and sometimes used expressive contour. He painted mainly landscapes, portraits, still lifes, but also genre compositions with villagers, fishermen or women from the underworld. In 1929-31 Epstein visited Brittany - staying in Quiberon and Concarneau - where he painted paintings and watercolors with views of ports and fishermen, as well as "Breton" still lifes with expressively depicted fish, birds and seafood.
