Espstein later recalled that Shaw had said that he only agree to sit for the artist if the work was a commission. Despite Shaw's consistent championing of Epstein, he was not heavily impressed. Of Shaw's response to the sculptor's first sculpture of him (which presents him with bare shoulders), Epstein wrote in his authobiography 'Let there be Sculpture' (1942): "Shaw was puzzled by the bust of himself and often looked at it and tried to make it out. He believed that I had made a kind of primitive barbarian of him, something altogether uncivilized and really a projection of myself, rather than of him. I never tried to explain the bust to him, and I think there are in it elements so subtle that they would be difficult to explain".
Espstein later recalled that Shaw had said that he only agree to sit for the artist if the work was a commission. Despite Shaw's consistent championing of Epstein, he was not heavily impressed. Of Shaw's response to the sculptor's first sculpture of him (which presents him with bare shoulders), Epstein wrote in his authobiography 'Let there be Sculpture' (1942): "Shaw was puzzled by the bust of himself and often looked at it and tried to make it out. He believed that I had made a kind of primitive barbarian of him, something altogether uncivilized and really a projection of myself, rather than of him. I never tried to explain the bust to him, and I think there are in it elements so subtle that they would be difficult to explain".