The collection consists of thirty-four original works
of art. The drawings, lithographs, and one oil painting are portraits of various
important figures who were contemporaries of Rothenstein.
Call Number:
Art Collection AR-00232
Language:
No linguistic material present
Access:
Open for research. A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials
to the Reading Room.
Administrative Information
Acquisition:
Purchases (R16, R162, R830, R1009, R1901, R2109, R2391, R2767, R3011, R3992, R4562),
and gift
The English portrait artist Sir William Rothenstein was born January 29, 1872, near
Bradford, Yorkshire. William Rothenstein was the son of Moritz Rothenstein, who
came
to England from Hanover in 1859, and the brother of Charles Lambert Rutherston,
the
collector, and Albert Daniel Rutherston, the artist. William Rothenstein studied
for
one year at the Slade School in London under Alphonse Legros, after which he spent
four years in Paris, where he attended the Académie Julian. While in
Paris, Rothenstein met many of the important artists of the time; he was
particularly influenced by James Whistler, Edgar Degas, and Henri Fantin-Latour.
After his return to
England in 1893, Rothenstein was commissioned by John Lane to execute a series
of
portraits of Oxford figures, which was published as Oxford
Characters: Twenty-four Lithographs (London: J. Lane, 1896). During his
life he went on to create over 750 portrait drawings and 135 lithographs.
Rothenstein was a professor of civic art at the University of Sheffield, a principal
of the Royal College of Art, a trustee of the Tate Gallery, and a member of the
Royal Fine Art Commission. He served as an official war artist during World War
I,
and was an unofficial artist to the Royal Air Force during World War II. Rothenstein
died in London on February 14, 1945.
Sources:
Ormond, R. L. Sir William Rothenstein. McGraw-Hill Dictionary
of Art, ed. B. S. Myers. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.
Towndrow, K. R. Sir William Rothenstein. The Dictionary of
National Biography: 1940-1950, ed. L. G. W. Legg & E. T.
Williams. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
Scope and Contents
The William Rothenstein Art Collection consists of thirty-four original
works of art, dating between 1896 and circa 1944, by William Rothenstein. The
works
(drawings, lithographs, and one oil painting) are portraits of various important
figures who were contemporaries of Rothenstein. Subjects include: Maurice Baring,
Max Beerbohm, Laurence Binyon, Edward Carpenter, R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Albert
Einstein, André Gide, Edmund Gosse, Harley Granville-Barker, Laurence
Housman, W. H. Hudson, Henry James, Florence Kahn, Eric Kennington, Frederic
Manning, Axel Munthe, George William Russell ("A. E."), George Bernard Shaw, James Stephens,
Dame Ellen Terry, and W. B. Yeats. The works are arranged alphabetically by portrait
subject.
Related Material
The Art Collection also has two caricatures by Max Beerbohm of William Rothenstein
in
its Max Beerbohm Collection. The Ransom Center has in its Manuscripts Collection
material related to Rothenstein in the Sir William Rothenstein Collection and
in the
collection of John Lane Company Records. The Ransom Center's Photography Collection
has Rothenstein material in its Literary File.
