Art
The Old Testament and Mr. Epstein
Tim fact that Mr. Jacob Epstein was shortly to hold an exhibition of drawings has not passed unnoticed, and Mr. Epstein, who contrary to popular belief is a serious artist, has been given a generous, if unenviable, amount of publicity well in advance of his exhibition. As usual, a certain section of the Press has seized on the occasion, and the news that these new drawings were illustrations to the Old Testament has added a novel piquancy to the popular Fleet Street sport of baiting Epstein. "Hands off the Bible, Mr. Epstein ! You made bad jokes at our most sacred conception of motherhood in your abominable ` Genesis,' but leave us our pretty Old Testament illusions !" And so it goes on! Jacob Epstein is in many ways the greatest artist of his generation, and it is hardly to the credit of the country of his adoption that his work is either regarded as a bad joke or else openly reviled.
The fifty-four illustrations to the Old Testament which are on view at the Redfern Gallery, 27 Old Bond Street, vary in quality and interest, but they make a memorable exhibition. It is perhaps unnecessary to state that they do not pretend to challenge comparison with those familiar oleographs of Biblical incidents which are still to be encountered on the walls of bedrooms in country inns. These drawings are extremely personal. Each is a synthesis of emotion intensely felt and graphically captured by the artist after contemplation of this or that incident. The best, naturally, are those in which the vision and the pictorial achievement are most closely unified. Song of Solomon—" Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners Y "; Joash—" Joash was seven years old when he began to reign "; The Hand of God; And God Blessed the Seventh Day; Adam naming the Beasts; and Babylon (both drawings) are among those which are most successful.
A good many people will neither like Mr. Epstein's drawings nor his interpretation of the Old Testament incidents, but they will be the losers in that they cannot share in the artist's rare and sympathetic treatment. It would be an excellent idea that a selection, say twenty-five, of these drawings should
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