... this work is usually considered to be a preliminary study for the artist's Second Portrait of Isobel which was executed the following year. As such, it more clearly reveals the artist's technique and method of modelling. This earlier portrait also depicts the subject in a more tranquil mood while the second portait shows her in a proud, almost defiant moment.
At the time that Epstein met her, Isobel Nicholas was an art student (she later was to become a painter and ballet designer), and Epstein was fascinated by her face which he considered exotic. Her thin pouting lips, high cheekbones, and other facial features have been studiously portrayed while the bust and arms appear to have been worked in a more direct manner by comparison.
Source: Bulletin, January-February 1971.
Exhibition History"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997
"Selected Cowles Family Gifts to the Permanent Collection," Des Moines Art Center, July 30 - Sept. 11, 1994
"The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries," Joslyn Art Musuem, Omaha, Oct. 10 - Nov. 28, 1971
Published ReferencesAPOLLO, Vol, XCIII, No. 112, June 1971, ill. no.7, p.522
DMAC Appointment Calendar, 1972, ill.
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. & b/w ill. p.66
DMAC Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1971, cover ill.
"The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries," Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, 1971, exh. cat. ref. p.73, ill. fig. no.218
