William
Rothenstein, the son a German-born Bradford
wool-merchant, was born in 1872. At the age of sixteen he moved to
London and enrolled at the Slade
School of Art. After working under Alphonse Legros he moved to
Paris where he associated with Toulouse-Lautrec and Camille Pissarro.
His best known painting
of this period is The Doll's House,
a picture that features Augustus John and
Rothenstein's wife.
Rothenstein returned to England but had little success as a painter.
On the outbreak of First World War, his German
name and accent made him unpopular in the Goucestershire village where
he lived. A patriotic Englishman he quickly accepted the offer of
Charles Masterman,
the head of the government's War
Propaganda Bureau (WPB)
to become an official war artist.
Rothenstein visited the Somme front in
December, 1917. He stayed with the British Fifth Army in 1918 and
during the German Spring Offensive, served
as a unofficial medical orderly. He returned to England in March and
his pictures were exhibited in May, 1918. Pictures by Rothenstein
included the Ypres
Salient
and Talbot
House, Ypres.
In 1920 Rothenstein became principal of the Royal
College of Art. A talented teacher, Rothenstein held the post
until 1935. Although sixty-six when the Second World
War started, Rothenstein became an artist with the Royal Air Force.
William
Rothenstein
died in 1945.
William Rothenstein, Talbot House, Ypres (1918)
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