Euphemia Lamb (1908)

The model, born Annie Nina Euphemia Forrest (1887-1957) was the first wife of the painter Henry Lamb (1883-1960), whom she married in 1906. He liked to call her ‘Euphemia’ as she allegedly reminded him of the blonde-haired saint painted by Mantegna (in the Museo Nazionale, Naples) and that name stuck. The marriage lasted little more than a year although they did not divorce until 1928. She posed for other artists such as Augustus John, Ambrose McEvoy and James Dickson Innes and was known for her promiscuity.

This is the first work by Jacob Epstein to enter the Tate's collection in 1917 having been acquired by the Contemporary Art Society by 1913. It is the first of four studies, dated to 1908, of Euphemia. She also posed for a full-length garden figure commissioned by Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938) in 1910, co-founder of the CAS in the same year, the marble version of which belonged to the artist and teacher Madeline Knox (19890-1975), the wife of Arthur Clifton (1863-1932) who was the director of the Carfax Gallery.

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