Born Nov. 10, 1880, in New York; died Aug. 19, 1959, in London. American sculptor.

Epstein moved to Paris in 1902 and studied there at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the Julian Academy. In 1905 he moved to London. Epstein was associated with the symbolist school, particularly in his early period, during which he produced the memorial for O. Wilde (granite, 1912, Pére Lachaise Cemetery, Paris). He produced religious and allegorical compositions, often achieving marked dramatic tension in his figures, as in his Madonna With Child (1952, Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, London). Epstein also executed numerous realistic portraits, which he imbued with vivid emotional characteristics and a sense of the agitation in the subject’s life. Among such works are the portraits of P. Robeson and O. Ross (bronze, 1931, Museum of Modern Art, New York).