Jacob Epstein Archives - Richard M. Langworth

It’s Baaaack! The Winston Churchill Bust Furore, Round 3

26 January 2021 Comments 0 Comments

N.B. The Epstein story is expanded in The American Spectator, 30 January.

It seems that every four or eight years we must have a Great Media Hoedown over a bust of Winston Churchill by Jacob Epstein arriving at, or departing, the White House. The revolving door bust belongs to the British Embassy. It has twice resided on loan in the Oval Office. Ipso facto, it has twice returned to the Embassy. Perhaps it should hang on a Zip line between the two buildings to convenience the spirit of the moment.

Whenever the Epstein makes a trip back or forth, the media explodes in speculation.…

More Obama and the Churchill Bust

6 March 2009 Comments 2 Comments

First and foremost, the Daily Telegraph did not connect Obama's grandfather's jailing with the Mau Mau rebellion. The Telegraph report is very careful on this point: "It was during Churchill's second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion. Among Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama, the President's grandfather."

President Obama and the Churchill Bust – Out

4 March 2009 Comments 0 Comments

James Kirkup reported in the March 2nd Telegraph that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was presenting the President with "a first edition of Sir Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill." ("Seven volumes" was a typo; Sir Martin was short Volume V, but Chartwell Booksellers in New York City helped him out and the full eight volumes were delivered.) So now, effectively, "Winston is Back" in the White House, and President Obama has arguably more Churchilliana than President Bush had.