William Rothenstein

Sir William Rothenstein (born January 29, 1872 in Bradford , † February 14, 1945 in London ) was an English painter , draftsman and graphic artist .

Rothenstein came from a family that had become wealthy in the textile trade. His father Moritz Rothenstein immigrated to England from Hanover in 1859 . William Rothenstein studied at the Slade School of Art in London, where Alphonse Legros strongly influenced him, and later in Paris at the Académie Julian . In Paris he met many important painters of the time, especially James McNeill Whistler , Edgar Degas and Henri Fantin-Latour . He became known for his portrait drawings of well-known contemporaries and was an official war painter in the First World War and an unofficial war painter in the Second World War . He was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers and the New English Art Club .

In 1906, his Bradford fellow citizen and patron Jacob Moser gave the Tate Gallery his painting Mourning Jews , which is still in their collection today. In 1894, after his return from Paris, Rothenstein moved to London, where he headed the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1935 and promoted artists such as Jacob Epstein , Henry Moore and Paul Nash . He has published several books, including English Portraits (1898) and the autobiography Men and Memories . In 1912 he was the host of the Bengali artist Rabindranath Thakur and helped him publish a volume of poetry. In 1931 Rothenstein was ennobled as a Knight Bachelor . He died before the end of World War II at Iles Farm , Far Oakbridge, Stroud , where he had lived for over 30 years, according to other sources in London.

William Rothenstein was the father of art historian John Rothenstein , who ran the Tate Gallery from 1938 to 1964.

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personal data
SURNAME	Rothenstein, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English painter, draftsman and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 29, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bradford
DATE OF DEATH	February 14, 1945
Place of death	London