Sandwiched between "Fine Chippendale'' and "French Books" in the London Times last week was an ad that was enough to make an old sculptor turn in his chisel. The ad: "Epstein's masterpieces. Adam, Jacob and the Angel, Consummatum Est, For Sale. Offers Wanted." The statues were three of Jacob Epstein's most famous works: a hulking, dumbly defiant alabaster giant that makes the first man look scarcely human; a muscle-bound Jacob hugging a brutish-looking angel; and a recumbent, mummy like figure of Christ, with crude but powerfully eloquent hands upturned in protest.
The three sculptures, along with a gracefully sprawling nude called...
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