Sir William Rothenstein (lots 1-13) and Albert Rutherston (lots 14-23)

Introduction
Raised in Bradford as two of six children of Jewish immigrants, William and Albert both achieved considerable influence at the very heart of the British art establishment. Amongst their many and remarkable strengths they were painters, printmakers, illustrators, teachers, administrators, gallerists and, in William’s case, an accomplished and prolific writer.

William was the first to move south to study under Alphonse Legros at the Slade (1888-89) before attending the Académie Julian in Paris (1889-1893) (lots 1-8), where he was encouraged by Whistler, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec and befriended Rodin. Albert followed him a decade later to the Slade, where by then Fred Brown was professor, assisted by Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Russell. The youngest student by far, Albert fell in with a gilded set of like-minded spirits, in particular Augustus John and William Orpen. The young trio was dubbed by William ‘The Three Musketeers’. Albert went on to win separate prizes for both drawing and painting and was awarded a Slade scholarship.

On his return from France William established himself as a talented portraitist illustrating Oxford Characters in 1896 with twenty-four lithographs. It was one of several collections of portraits depicting men and women of distinction that William would produce. In 1900 William’s painting The Dolls House (after Ibsen’s eponymous play), won a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the same year as his book on Goya was published. Such foreboding influences, however, contrasted with the many happy and light-filled works he produced following his marriage to Alice Knewstub in 1899. (lots 9 & 10).

For Albert and his fellow ‘Musketeers’ the new century heralded trips to France. There he met Walter Sickert and shared holidays with William, Spencer Gore and Slade teacher Walter Russell. In London Albert thrived on Fitzroy Street and exhibited with William, Sickert, Gore, Russell and Harold Gilman. Sickert recalled their efforts ‘to create a Salon d’automne milieu in London’.

Towards the end of the 1910s Albert turned increasingly to decorative designs. In 1911 he collaborated with Roger Fry on large scale murals for Borough Polytechnic (lot 20) and worked on a number of designs for the ballet and theatre (lots 14-16). He changed his name to Rutherston in 1916. After the War he married Marjory Holman, taught at Camberwell School of Art, and the Oxford School of Drawing, Painting and Design, and was appointed Master of the Ruskin School of Art (1929-49). A late but important influence in his life was the young model Patricia Koring whom he met in 1938.

From the First World War on William’s work revolved around painting, teaching and writing. During 1917-18 he spent six months as an official War artist at the Front (lot 12), and was briefly visiting Professor of Civic Art at Sheffield University. In 1920 he became Principal of the Royal College of Art in London and was knighted in 1931. As well as Goya, among William’s publications were three fascinating volumes of memoirs. William’s sons carved out their own influential paths in the Arts. John (1901-92) his eldest, became director of the Tate Gallery (1938-1964), wrote Modern British Painters (1956) and was knighted in 1952. Michael (1908-1993) became a highly accomplished painter and print maker (lots 24-30).


SIR WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN (BRITISH 1872-1945)
PROFILE OF PAUL GERVAIS
inscribed P Gervais lower right
charcoal with white chalk
36.5 x 23cm; 14 1/4 x 9in
41.5 x 34cm; 16 1/4 x 13 1/4in (framed)

Executed in Paris circa 1890. The painter Paul Gervais (1859-1944) was a teacher at the Académie Julian where Rothenstein studied from 1889-1893. A pupil of Jean Léon Gérôme, Gervais was known, and occasionally rebuked, for his depictions of sensuous nudes. Prominent commissions included Les Graces Florentines for La Salle Blanche in the Casino de Monte-Carlo and the Salle Empire in the Hôtel de Paris, Monte-Carlo.