William Rothenstein

Last updated

Sir

William Rothenstein
William Rothenstein photo by George Charles Beresford 1920.jpg
A portrait of William Rothenstein taken by George Charles Beresford in 1920
Born(1872-01-29)29 January 1872
Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died14 February 1945(1945-02-14) (aged 73)
London, England
Education Bradford Grammar School, Slade School of Fine Art
Académie Julian
Known forPainting
SpouseAlice Knewstub
Children4, including John and Michael

Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Though he covered many subjects – ranging from landscapes in France to representations of Jewish synagogues in London – he is perhaps best known for his work as a war artist in both world wars, his portraits, and his popular memoirs, written in the 1930s. More than two hundred of Rothenstein's portraits of famous people can be found in the National Portrait Gallery collection. The Tate Gallery also holds a large collection of his paintings, prints and drawings. Rothenstein served as Principal at the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1935. He was knighted in 1931 for his services to art. In March 2015 'From Bradford to Benares: the Art of Sir William Rothenstein', the first major exhibition of Rothenstein's work for over forty years, opened at Bradford's Cartwright Hall Gallery, touring to the Ben Uri in London later that year.

Contents

Personal life

Sir William Rothenstein, photo by George Charles Beresford, 1902 William Rothenstein photo by George Charles Beresford 1902.jpg
Sir William Rothenstein, photo by George Charles Beresford, 1902

William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire where he was educated at Bradford Grammar School. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry. Soon afterwards he married Bertha Dux and they had six children, of whom William was the fifth. [1]

William's two brothers, Charles and Albert, were also heavily involved in the arts. Charles (1866–1927), who followed his father into the wool trade, was an important collector – and left his entire collection to Manchester Art Gallery in 1925. [2] Albert (1881–1953) was a painter, illustrator and costume designer. [3] Both brothers changed their surname to Rutherston during the First World War. [1]

He married Alice Knewstub in 1899 [1] with whom he had four children: John, Betty, Rachel and Michael. John Rothenstein later gained fame as an art historian and art administrator (he was Director of the Tate Gallery from 1938 to 1964 and was knighted in 1952). [4] Michael Rothenstein was a talented printmaker. [5]

Education

Rothenstein left Bradford Grammar School at the age of sixteen to study at the Slade School of Art, London (1888–93), where he was taught by Alphonse Legros, and the Académie Julian in Paris (1889–1893), where he met and was encouraged by James McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. [6] While in Paris he also befriended the Anglo-Australian artist Charles Conder, with whom he shared a studio in Montmartre. [1]

Career

Artist

Rothenstein's portrait drawing of Auguste Rodin Auguste Rodin par William Rothenstein.jpg
Rothenstein's portrait drawing of Auguste Rodin
Rothenstein's drawing of Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Beardsley by William Rothstein.jpg
Rothenstein's drawing of Aubrey Beardsley

In 1893 Rothenstein returned to Britain to work on "Oxford Characters" a series of lithographic portraits, eventually published in 1896 [7] Other portrait collections by the artist include English Portraits (1898), Twelve Portraits (1929) and Contemporaries (1937). [1] In Oxford he met and became a close friend of the caricaturist and parodist Max Beerbohm, who later immortalised him in the short story Enoch Soames (1919). During the 1890s Rothenstein exhibited with the New English Art Club and contributed drawings to The Yellow Book and The Savoy .

In 1898–99 he co-founded the Carfax Gallery (or Carfax & Co) in St. James' Piccadilly with John Fothergill (later innkeeper of the Spread Eagle in Thame). [8] During its early years the gallery was closely associated with artists Charles Conder, Philip Wilson Steer, Charles Ricketts and Augustus John. It also exhibited the work of Auguste Rodin, whose growing reputation in England owed much to Rothenstein's friendship. [8] Rothenstein's role as artistic manager of the gallery was abandoned in 1901, whereupon the firm came under the management of his close friend Robert Ross. Ross left in 1908, leaving the gallery in the hands of longtime financial manager Arthur Clifton. Under Clifton the gallery was the home for all three exhibitions of the Camden Town Group, led by Rothenstein's friend and close contemporary Walter Sickert. [9]

In 1900 Rothenstein won a silver medal for his painting The Doll's House at the Exposition Universelle. [8] [10] This painting continues to be one of his best-known and most critically acclaimed works, and was the subject of a recent in-depth study published by the Tate Gallery. [11]

The style and subject of Rothenstein's paintings varies, though certain themes reappear, in particular an interest in 'weighty' or 'essential' subjects tackled in a restrained manner. Good examples include Parting at Morning (1891), Mother and Child (1903) and Jews Mourning at a Synagogue (1907) – all of which are owned by the Tate Gallery. [8] [12] [13] [14]

Between 1902 and 1912 Rothenstein lived in Hampstead, London, where his social circle included H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad and the artist Augustus John. Amongst the young artists to visit Rothenstein in Hampstead were Wyndham Lewis, Mark Gertler and Paul Nash. [8] During this period Rothenstein worked on a series of important paintings in the predominantly Jewish East End of London, [8] some of which were included in the influential 1906 exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquaries at the Whitechapel Gallery. [8]

Another feature of this period are the celebrated interiors he painted, the most famous of which is The Browning Readers (1900), now owned by Cartwright Hall gallery, Bradford. Most of Rothenstein's interiors feature members of his family, especially his wife Alice. Reminiscent of Dutch painting (particularly Vermeer and Rembrandt), they are similar in style to contemporary works by William Orpen, who became Rothenstein's brother-in-law in 1901, marrying Alice's sister Grace. [8] [15] Other notable interiors include Spring, The Morning Room (c.1910) and Mother and Child, Candlight (c.1909). [16] [17]

Rothenstein maintained a lifelong fascination for Indian sculpture and painting, and in 1910 set out on a seminal tour of the subcontinent's major artistic and religious sites. This began with a visit to the ancient Buddhist caves of Ajanta, where he observed Lady Christiana Herringham and Nandalal Bose making watercolour copies of the ancient frescoes. He subsequently contributed a chapter on their importance to the published edition. The trip ended with a stay in Calcutta, where he witnessed the attempts of Abanindranath Tagore to revive the techniques and aesthetics of traditional Indian painting. [18]

He was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. [8]

Royal College of Art

Chalk drawing of Francis Derwent Wood, inscribed 'To F Derwent Wood - Homage from W Rothenstein, 1921'. Wood was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art when Rothenstein was Principal. Francis Derwent Wood, R.A. - William Rothenstein - 1921 - Rothenstein-98995-2.jpg
Chalk drawing of Francis Derwent Wood, inscribed 'To F Derwent Wood – Homage from W Rothenstein, 1921'. Wood was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art when Rothenstein was Principal.

Rothenstein was principal of the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1935, [6] where he encouraged figures including Edward Burra, Evelyn Dunbar, U Ba Nyan and Henry Moore. Moore was later to write that Rothenstein "gave me the feeling that there was no barrier, no limit to what a young provincial student could get to be and do". [20] Rothenstein was a master of lobbying and advocacy for his students, notably when, thanks to his efforts, Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious were commissioned to paint a mural in the dining room of Morley College. [21] After being appointed, he introduced greater informality and was permitted to appoint practising artists, including Paul Nash and Edward Johnston as visiting lecturers. In due course, those students who built successful careers were invited back to the college to lecture. [21]

Writer

Rothenstein wrote several critical books and pamphlets, including Goya (1900; the first English monograph on the artist), A Plea for a Wider Use of Artists & Craftsmen (1916) and Whither Painting (1932). During the 1930s he published three volumes of memoirs: Men and Memories, Vol I and II and Since Fifty. [1] Men and Memories Volume I includes anecdotes about Oscar Wilde and many other friends of Rothenstein's, including Max Beerbohm, James Whistler, Paul Verlaine, Edgar Degas, and John Singer Sargent. [22]

Recognition

Rothenstein was knighted in the New Year Honours in 1931. [23] Rabindranath Tagore dedicated his Nobel Prize winner poetry collection Gitanjali to William Rothenstein. [24]

In 2011 the BBC and the Public Catalogue Foundation began cataloguing all of his paintings in public ownership online. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Beerbohm</span> English writer and caricaturist (1872-1956)

Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the Saturday Review from 1898 until 1910, when he relocated to Rapallo, Italy. In his later years he was popular for his occasional radio broadcasts. Among his best-known works is his only novel, Zuleika Dobson, published in 1911. His caricatures, drawn usually in pen or pencil with muted watercolour tinting, are in many public collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Roberts (painter)</span> British painter (1895–1980)

William Patrick Roberts was a British artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Orpen</span> Irish artist (1878–1931)

Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in Edwardian society, though many of his most striking paintings are self-portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abanindranath Tagore</span> Indian painter and writer (1871–1951)

Abanindranath Tagore was the principal artist and creator of the "Indian Society of Oriental Art". He was also the first major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art. He founded the influential Bengal school of art, which led to the development of modern Indian painting. He was also a noted writer, particularly for children. Popularly known as 'Aban Thakur', his books Rajkahini, Buro Angla, Nalak, and Khirer Putul were landmarks in Bengali language children's literature and art.

Alfred William Rich was an English artist, teacher and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rothenstein</span>

Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein was a British arts administrator and art historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Gore (artist)</span> English painter

Spencer Frederick Gore was a British painter of landscapes, music-hall scenes and interiors, usually with single figures. He was the first president of the Camden Town Group, and was influenced by the Post-Impressionists.

William Michael Rothenstein was a British printmaker, painter and art teacher.

Albertus Antonius Johannes Houthuesen, known as Albert Houthuesen, was a Dutch-born British artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mukul Dey</span> Indian artist (1895-1989)

Mukul Chandra Dey was one of five children of Purnashashi Devi and Kula Chandra Dey. He was a student of Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan and is considered as a pioneer of drypoint-etching in India. The entire family of Mukul Dey had artistic talents, the brother Manishi Dey was a well-known painter, and his two sisters, Annapura and Rani Chanda, were accomplished in arts and crafts as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oakridge, Gloucestershire</span> Human settlement in England

Oakridge is a village in Gloucestershire, England. The parish church is St. Bartholomew's Church. It is just on the outskirts of Stroud, Gloucestershire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Tonks</span> English painter

Henry Tonks, FRCS was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist. He became an influential art teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Reid (museum director)</span>

Sir Norman Robert Reid was an arts administrator and painter. He served as the Director of the Tate Gallery from 1964 to 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Aitken</span>

Charles Aitken was a British art administrator and was the third Keeper of the Tate Gallery (1911–1917) and the first Director (1917–1930).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christiana Herringham</span> British painter

Christiana Jane Herringham, Lady Herringham was a British artist, copyist, and art patron. She is noted for her part in establishing the National Art Collections Fund in 1903 to help preserve Britain's artistic heritage. In 1910 Walter Sickert wrote of her as "the most useful and authoritative critic living".

Eric Craven Gregory, also known as Peter Gregory, was a publisher and benefactor of modern art and artists.

Albert Daniel Rutherston was a British artist. He painted figures and landscape, illustrated books and designed posters and stage sets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bruce Ellis Ranken</span> British painter

William Bruce Ellis Ranken was a British artist and Edwardian aesthete. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Robert Burt Ranken, a wealthy and successful lawyer, and his wife Mary. He attended Eton College and then proceeded to the Slade School of Art, under the tutelage of Henry Tonks. A fellow student was the actor Ernest Thesiger, who became a lifelong friend; he was painted by Ranken in 1918, and married Ranken's sister Janette Ranken in 1917.

Jeanette Rutherston (1902–1988), later Jeanette Powell, was a British dancer and television critic. She was a writer and assistant editor on the Dancing Times magazine in the 1930s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Robert Speaight (1962). William Rothenstein: the Portrait of an Artist in his Time. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
  2. ↑ "Manchester City Galleries – History of the Collection". Manchestergalleries.org. 22 June 2006. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "Albert Rutherston". Oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Edward Chaney, "The Vasari of British Art: Sir John Rothenstein... and the Importance of Wyndham Lewis", Apollo, vol. CXXXII, no. 345 (November 1990), pp. 322–26
  5. ↑ Nicholas Usherwood, 'Rothenstein, (William) Michael Francis (1908–1993)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 30 January 2014
  6. 1 2 "National Portrait Gallery – Person- Sir William Rothenstein". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  7. ↑ Lago, Mary (2004). "William Rothenstein" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35842.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Samual Shaw (August 2010). "'Equivocal Positions': The Influence of William Rothenstein, c. 1890–1910" (PDF). University of York . Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  9. ↑ The Doll's House Tate Etc..
  10. ↑ Samuel Shaw (ed.), In Focus: The Doll’s House 1899–1900 by William Rothenstein, Tate Research Publication, 2016, accessed 13 May 2016
  11. ↑ Terry Riggs (December 1997). "Parting at Morning (1891)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Terry Riggs (January 1998). "Mother and Child (1903)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  13. ↑ Terry Riggs (1998). "Jews Mourning at a Synagogue (1907)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  14. ↑ The Browning Readers (1900). Your Paintings. BBC.
  15. ↑ Spring, The Morning Room. (c.1910) Your Paintings. BBC.
  16. ↑ Mother and Child, Candlight (c.1909) Your Paintings. BBC.
  17. ↑ Rupert Richard Arrowsmith, "An Indian Renascence and the rise of global modernism: William Rothenstein in India, 1910–11", The Burlington Magazine , vol.152 no.1285 (April 2010), pp.228–235.
  18. ↑ "The List". Abbott and Holder. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020.
  19. ↑ Alan Wilkinson, ed. "Henry Moore: Writings and Conversation" University of California Press, 2002. p.47
  20. 1 2 Andy Friend (2017). Ravillious & Co. Thames &Hudson. ISBN   978-0-500-23955-1.
  21. ↑ Oscar Wilde Selected Letters, ed. Hart-Davis, R. Oxford, 1979, p105
  22. ↑ 'The KING has been graciously pleased to signify His Majesty's intention of conferring the Honour of Knighthood on the following ...Professor William Rothenstein, M.A., Hon., A.R.C.A. Principal, Royal College of Art. For several years Professor of Civic Art, Sheffield University'. Edinburgh Gazette. 6 January 1931. p. 13.
  23. ↑ Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore published by Macmillan
  24. ↑ William Rothenstein. Your Paintings. BBC.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.