SIR WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN (BRITISH 1872-1945) Lot n° 34

WOMAN IN A BLACK BONNET signed Will Rothenstein / Paris lower left; dedicated and dated For Alice Aug. 95 upper left oil on canvas 58 x 36cm; 23 x 14 1/4in 73 x 51cm; 29 x 20in (framed) Property from the Artist’s Family Provenance: Alice Rothenstein (a gift from the artist; Rothenstein married the actress Alice Knewstub, who took the stage name Kingsley, in 1899. They had four children, including John who became Director of the Tate Gallery from 1938 to 1964, and Michael who became a talented print maker). Lucy Rothenstein (the artist's grand-daughter, by descent from the above) Sale, Sotheby's London, 26 February 2003, lot 27 Purchased at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited: London, Tate Gallery, William Rothenstein Memorial Exhibition, 1950, no. 2 (as An old lady) Bradford, City Art Gallery & Museums, 1972, no. 2 (illustrated in the catalogue) It has been suggested that inspiration for the present painting was a character in a Balzac novel, and may have been painted in Moret-Sur-Loing, where Rothenstein spent time in the summer of 1893. Rothenstein describes how 'a model came down to sit for him. He had bought some old dresses of an earlier period... and made her deck out in these for some paintings' (Robert Speaight, William Rothenstein: The Portrait of an Artist in his Time, London, 1962, p. 52). The dark tonality of the painting reflects his interest in Spanish painting and Goya in particular, an artist on whom he published a monograph in 1899; the poster, top right in the canvas, appears either to be a playbill or a contemporary fashion plate. A naturally gifted painter, Rothenstein had a keen eye for capturing the essence of his subject's character. He studied first at the Slade School of Art, where he was taught by Alphonse Legros, and then at the Académie Julian in Paris where he lived for four years from 1889-93. In Paris he quickly befriended a coterie of leading artists and writers of the day, among them Whistler, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Pissarro, made the acquaintance of Rodin, and shared a studio with Charles Conder in Montmartre. On his return to England Rothenstein worked on his series Oxford Characters, featuring more than twenty portraits of figures associated with Oxford, including his friend the writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm. He went on to have a glittering career as both an artist and writer. He was knighted in 1931 for his services to art. _x000D_ _x000D_