Born July, 1870 in Slonsk, which was controlled by Russia, government of Minsk at the time. He was born to Polish Jewish parents. Epstein studies at the Vilnius School of Design, and later at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, where he became a professor in 1923. Epstein was a highly talented artist and won several important prizes and bourses, including a traveling grant from the Michael Beersch Foundation for his painting "Saul and David." In addition, he was two times amongst the laureates for the Prix de Rome. During the First World War , Epstein was an official artist for the Austrian army. He emigrated to South Africa in 1935. This important modernist painter died on November 16, 1945.