Lydia (aka Second Portrait of Lydia)

Lydia, a jazz singer and/or dancer, was working as a waitress at Epstein’s favourite Chinese restaurant in London’s Wardour Street when they met. Epstein made three busts of her between 1929 and 1934: the first, head-and-shoulders portrait in bronze with a green patina (1929-30), in which Lydia has bobbed hair; this second, bronze head-and-shoulders portrait (1931) with short hair; and a third bronze (head only) entitled 'Lydia laughing' (1934), with bobbed hair. This version was exhibited in Epstein's solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1933.