Sir William Rothenstein (lot 76) and Albert Rutherston (lots 77-82)

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), 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.

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 and worked on a number of designs for the ballet and theatre. 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 76), 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.

SIR WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN (BRITISH 1872-1945)
THE CHURCH OF ST GERY, HAVRINCOURT
titled Havrincourt Church lower left and numbered 29 lower right
oil pastel over pencil on paper
52 x 36cm; 20 1/2 x 14 1/4in
85.5 x 63.5cm; 33 3/4 x 25in (framed)

Havrincourt was on the battle front during the First World War. By November 1917 the German ‘Hindenburg Line’ crossed through it, and the village was part of the opening phase of the Battle of Cambrai at the end of the month. The second battle at Havrincourt opened in mid-September 1918, and marked the beginning of the German retreat back to the Belgian-French border. The vast majority of the village was destroyed in the conflict, but much was rebuilt following the Armistice, including the church of St Géry.

Rothenstein worked alongside Eric Kennington (1888-1960) as a War Artist, recording in his memoires how 'We worked at Cambrai, Bourlon, Moeuvres, Havrincourt, Lesquières - everywhere the fantastic shapes and colours of ruined houses and shell-shocked trees provided a constant stimulus... No work has ever satisfied me so completely as that which I undertook while acting as a British, and later, as a Canadian, Official Artist. (William Rothenstein, Men and Memories, London, 1932, vol. II, p. 361).