Explore the Torso in Metal of this artwork.
Epstein dismantled the original sculpture: he sold the drill and truncated the figure. When he exhibited the radically transformed Torso in Metal from Rock Drill in 1916, he had evidently turned his back on his 'experimental pre-war days of 1913'. In contrast to the power and virility exuded by the full-figure, the truncated version appears defenceless and melancholic, evocative of the wounded soldiers who were returning home from the trenches in startling numbers. Torso in Metal from Rock Drill is now at Tate Britain, London and also at Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand.
Rock Drill Tate Tate Britain Auckland Art Gallery