For adults only: How Jacob Epstein's work was played for shock value on the Golden Mile

Historian Robert Leach writes for The Blackpool Lead about Sir Jacob Epstein's work and how it was presented in Blackpool

Epstein did not always approve of how Blackpool promoted his works

Jewish-American sculptor Jacob Epstein was born in New York City in 1880, he emigrated to Paris in 1902 where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts before moving to England in 1905 with his then wife-to-be, Margaret, Peggy, Dunlop. He became a British subject in 1910, living first in East Sussex before they moved to London.

He is now, in hindsight, considered to have played a pivotal role in the development of Modern British sculpture at the beginning of the Twentieth century, but his importance to the art world wasn’t always properly recognised, which is perhaps what first brought his works to Blackpool.