William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein | |
---|---|
Born | Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | 29 January 1872
Died | 14 February 1945 London, England | (aged 73)
Education | Bradford Grammar School, Slade School of Fine Art Académie Julian |
Known for | Painting |
Spouse | Alice Knewstub |
Children | 4, 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
Personal life
William Rothenstein was born into a
William's two brothers, Charles and
He married Alice Knewstub in 1899
Education
Rothenstein left
Career
Artist
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
Rothenstein was principal of the
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]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Robert Speaight (1962). William Rothenstein: the Portrait of an Artist in his Time. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
- ^ "Manchester City Galleries – History of the Collection". Manchestergalleries.org. 22 June 2006. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ "Albert Rutherston". Oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ 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
- ^ Nicholas Usherwood, 'Rothenstein, (William) Michael Francis (1908–1993)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 30 January 2014
- ^ a b "National Portrait Gallery – Person- Sir William Rothenstein". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35842. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Samual Shaw (August 2010). "'Equivocal Positions': The Influence of William Rothenstein, c. 1890–1910" (PDF). University of York. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Samuel Shaw, 'The Carfax Gallery and the Camden Town Group' (The Camden Town Group in Context)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ The Doll's House Tate Etc..
- ^ Samuel Shaw (ed.), In Focus: The Doll’s House 1899–1900 by William Rothenstein, Tate Research Publication, 2016, accessed 13 May 2016
- ^ Terry Riggs (December 1997). "Parting at Morning (1891)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ Terry Riggs (January 1998). "Mother and Child (1903)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ Terry Riggs (1998). "Jews Mourning at a Synagogue (1907)". Tate Etc. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ The Browning Readers (1900). Your Paintings. BBC.
- ^ Spring, The Morning Room. (c.1910) Your Paintings. BBC.
- ^ Mother and Child, Candlight (c.1909) Your Paintings. BBC.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "The List". Abbott and Holder. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020.
- ^ Alan Wilkinson, ed. "Henry Moore: Writings and Conversation" University of California Press, 2002. p.47
- ^ ISBN 978-0-500-23955-1.
- ^ Oscar Wilde Selected Letters, ed. Hart-Davis, R. Oxford, 1979, p105
- Edinburgh Gazette. 6 January 1931. p. 13.
- ^ Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore published by Macmillan
- ^ William Rothenstein. Your Paintings. BBC.
Further reading
- Lago, Mary, and Karl Beckson, eds. Max and Will: Max Beerbohm and William Rothenstein, their friendship and letters, 1893–1945. (1975).
- Lago, Mary. Imperfect Encounter: Letters of William Rothenstein and Rabindranath Tagore (1972)
- Rothenstein, John. Summer's Lease: Autobiography 1901–1938 (1965)
- Rothenstein, William. Men and Memories: Recollections, Vol. I (1872-1900) and Vol. II (1900-1922) (1931 and 1932, respectively)
- Rothenstein, William. Since Fifty: Men and Memories, 1922-1938 (1939)
- Rothenstein, William. Men and Memories: Recollections, 1872-1938, Abridged with Introduction and Notes by Mary Lago (1978)
- Rothenstein, William, Twenty-Four Portraits: With Critical Appreciations by Various Hands, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., (1920)
- Speaight, R., William Rothenstein: The Portrait of an Artist in his Time (1962)
- Shaw, Samuel, From Bradford to Benares. The Art of Sir William Rothenstein (Bradford Museums and Galleries, 2015) ISBN 978 0 9466 5767 4
- MacDougall, Sarah, ed., William Rothenstein and His Circle, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum (2016)
External links
- 111 artworks by or after William Rothenstein at the Art UK site
- William Rothenstein – Short Biography at Yellow Nineties Online
- Mary Lago Collection at the University of Missouri Libraries. Personal papers of a Rothenstein scholar.
- The William Rothenstein Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University
- UNCG American Publishers' Trade Bindings: Sir William Rothenstein