Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)

In 1954 F.J. Marquis, First Baron Woolton, commissioned the Liverpool Resurgent, a full-length heroic bronze figure to stand at the porticoed entrance of Lewis's Store in Liverpool. The old store had been destroyed on 3 May 1941 and Epstein's figure, which is standing on the prow of a ship, represented 'Liverpool rising from the flames of war', according to the Liverpool Echo after its unveiling on 20 November 1956 (see E. Silber, loc. cit.).

The present work is a unique head and shoulders bronze of the Liverpool Resurgent. Epstein modeled the gigantic sculpture in sections in his Hyde Park Studio, and the final full-length bronze was assembled at the Royal College of Art.