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'Equivocal Positions': the Influence of William Rothenstein, C.1890-1910

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'Equivocal Positions': the Influence of William Rothenstein, C.1890-1910 ‘EQUIVOCAL POSITIONS’: THE INFLUENCE OF WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN, c.1890-1910 SAMUEL SHAW PH.D THE UNIVERSITY OF YORK HISTORY OF ART AUGUST 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Abbreviations 4 List of Illustrations 5 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction: Vattetot 1899 9 1. „Laying Down the Law‟: Managing the Instinct to Influence, c.1890-1899 21 2. „The ideal shop‟?: Exhibiting Spaces, c.1890-1911 67 3. „Work of a certain character‟: Rothenstein‟s critical position, c.1900-1910 128 4. „Still the importance personage‟: Identity and Influence, c.1900-1910 181 Coda: „A little of a revolutionary‟: Rothenstein on and after 1910 229 Bibliography 1. Primary Sources: Unpublished 240 2. Primary Sources: Published 241 3. Secondary Sources 247 Illustrations 258 2 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the influence of the artist Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945) between the years 1890 and 1910. A talented draughtsman and painter, Rothenstein was also an energetic social networker, a keen critic, an influential force in the foundation of several societies and – in the case of the Carfax – a commercial gallery. This study employs a wide range of sources to trace these achievements, and explains why Rothenstein‟s life and work have tended to resist critical interpretation. This study argues that Rothenstein grappled constantly with the notion of being influential. To draw out these tensions, Rothenstein‟s relationships with several artists (Charles Ricketts, Max Beerbohm, Charles Conder, Augustus John and Mark Gertler) are explored in depth. Significant aspects of his identity – his status as a middle-class Anglo-German Jew, for instance, or resident of Hampstead – are also considered. It is argued throughout that the complexity and ambiguity of Rothenstein‟s identity and close relationships were fuelled by a desire to carefully control his instinct to influence. The Carfax Gallery, co-founded by Rothenstein in 1898, went on to hold important exhibitions of contemporary British art. This thesis offers the first detailed account of the gallery‟s origins and subsequent position within the rapidly-changing London art market of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Rothenstein claimed that the gallery was founded to support „work of a certain character‟; through a close examination of Rothenstein‟s writings (including his 1900 study Goya) and art works, significant attributes of this elusive character are revealed. I explore, amongst others, the turn-of-the-century popularity of artists such as Rembrandt, Puvis de Chavannes, Honoré Daumier, Jean-François Millet and Rodin. If a hint of the equivocal remains, this is seen to be justified: Rothenstein sought a critical position that could not, ultimately, be pinned down. This study not only represents the first major attempt to engage with the early career of William Rothenstein, but confirms the artist‟s importance to a range of wider issues, through which we may develop new ways of thinking about a much neglected period of British art. 3 ABBREVIATIONS In the text: N.E.A.C. – New English Art Club In the footnotes: HGTN – Houghton Library, Harvard TA – Tate Archives, London BL – British Library 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. George Charles Beresford, William Rothenstein, c.1902 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 2. William Rothenstein, A Doll‟s House, 1899-1900 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 3. Charles Conder, Frontispiece to Balzac‟s „La Fille aux yeux d‟or‟, 1896 [Galbally (2002) 142] 4. William Rothenstein, Le Grand-I-Vert (Night) 1899 [Witt Library, Courtauld Institute] 5. William Rothenstein, The Browning Readers, 1900 [Bridgeman Art Library] 6. William Rothenstein, Mr Charles Ricketts and Mr Charles Hazelwood Shannon, 1897 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 7. Max Beerbohm, Will Rothenstein Laying Down the Law, c.1895 [Beckson and Lago (1975)] 8. Max Beerbohm, The New English Art Club, 1906/7 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 9. William Orpen, The Play Scene from „Hamlet‟, 1899 [Upstone (2005) 80] 10. William Orpen, The Selecting Jury of the New English Art Club, 1909 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 11. Anonymous, Last Jury of the New English Art Club at the Dudley Gallery, 1904 [Jenkins and Stephens (2004) 205] 12. William Rothenstein, The Saturday Review: Illustrated Supplement, 1896 [Bridgeman Art Library] 13. William Rothenstein, Max Beerbohm, 1898 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 14. William Rothenstein, L‟Homme qui sort (The Painter Charles Conder), 1892 [Galbally and Pearce (2003) 10] 15. William Rothenstein, Group Portrait, 1894 [Bridgeman Art Library] 16. Charles Shannon, E J Van Wisselingh: A Portrait Sketch, 1895 [British Museum online catalogue] 5 17. William Rothenstein, Robert Baldwin Ross, c.1900 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 18. William Rothenstein, Hablant Espagnol, 1895 [Brown University Library: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/] 19. William Rothenstein, Laurence Binyon, 1898 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 20. William Rothenstein, Vézélay, 1896 [Wellington (1923) Pl.2] 21. William Rothenstein, The Quarry (or The Old Quarry, Hawksworth) 1904 [Bridgeman Art Library] 22. Charles Conder, Yport, 1892 [Galbally and Pearce (2003) 113] 23. William Rothenstein, Nature‟s Ramparts (or Cliffs at Vaucottes), 1908 [W Rothenstein (1937c) 224] 24. Charles Conder, Newquay (Towan Beach), 1906 [Galbally and Pearce (2003) 137] 25. William Rothenstein, Tree in Winter, Iles Farm, 1916 [Wellington (1923) Pl.22] 26. William Rothenstein, Dame Margery Perham, 1919 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 27. Wyndham Lewis, Self Portrait with Pipe, 1938 [Edwards (2008) 30] 28. William Rothenstein, Reading the Book of Esther, 1907 [Wellington (1923) Pl.8] 29. Harold Gilman, Mrs Mounter at the Breakfast Table, c.1917 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 30. William Rothenstein, Eli the Thatcher, 1913 [Wellington (1923) Pl.19] 31. Rembrandt van Rijn, Philosopher in Meditation, 1632 [Bridgeman Art Library] 32. William Rothenstein, The Butcher‟s Shop Under the Trees, 1899 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 33. William Orpen, The English Nude, 1900 [Bridgeman Art Library] 34. Augustus John, Merikli, 1902 [Jenkins and Stephens (2004) 65] 35. William Rothenstein, Auguste Rodin, 1906 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 36. Charles Conder, Women bathing, Swanage, 1900 [Galbally and Pearce (2003) 128] 37. William Orpen, Crisis at the New English Art Club, 1904, 1930 [Jenkins and Stephens (2004) 205] 6 38. 26 Church Row, Hampstead [photographed by the author] 39. William Rothenstein, Mother and Child, 1903 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 40. William Rothenstein, An Interior, 1903 [Witt Library, Courtauld Institute] 41. William Rothenstein, Mother and Child, c.1901 [Sotheby‟s online catalogue] 42. William Rothenstein, Spring - The Morning Room, 1910 [Bridgeman Art Library] 43. William Rothenstein, Eric Gill and Alice Rothenstein, c.1914 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 44. George Charles Beresford, Alice Rothenstein, c.1901 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 45. William Rothenstein, The Princess Badroulbadour, 1908 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 46. William Rothenstein, Joseph Conrad, 1903 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 47. Alfred Wolmark, Israel Zangwill, 1925 [National Portrait Gallery online catalogue] 48. William Rothenstein, Aliens at Prayer, 1905 [Wellington (1923) Pl.7] 49. William Rothenstein, Jews Mourning in a Synagogue, 1906 [Tate Gallery online catalogue] 50. Jacob Kramer, The Day of Atonement, 1919 [Bridgeman Art Library] 7 Acknowledgements Initial thanks must go to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, whose funding made this study possible in the first place – and to the University of York, for providing the right environment in which to bring it to completion. I have visited a range of museums, libraries and archives during the course of my research. Particular thanks must go to all the staff at the Houghton Library, Harvard – and to Sandra Martin of Manchester City Art Gallery. Various members of William Rothenstein‟s family have generously allowed me to see their collections of paintings and drawings. I would like to thank the Spiegelbergs, Lucy Carter and David Ward for their gracious hospitality. In the University of York and beyond I have benefited from contact with various academics. It would be impossible to name them all: special thanks must go, nonetheless, go to my supervisor, David Peters Corbett, whose wise counsel has been utterly invaluable throughout. I would also like to thank my family and friends. The first, in particular, have had to suffer more than most my endless rambling on about William Rothenstein. I cannot pretend that this will now end; I must thank them, nevertheless, for putting up with it so far – and for the constant love and support they have provided over the last three years. Lastly, thanks to my wife Sarah – for everything. 8 INTRODUCTION Vattetot, 1899 A walking intelligence of a distinctly uncommon sort – He‟s a sort of sizer-up of all the art work being done everywhere. He never flatters, is quite sincere, and so has (consciously or unconsciously) acquired a great influence. [Muirhead Bone on William Rothenstein, c.1902].1 These awful doubts that come on one after action! [William Rothenstein to Robert Ross, 1899].2 In the summer of 1899, the artist William Rothenstein holidayed at Vattetot-sur-mer, on the Normandy Coast.3 He and his new wife, Alice, had enjoyed their honeymoon there earlier in the year; now they were returning with friends and family in tow.4 Alice‟s younger sister
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