Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein (11 July 1901 – 27 February 1992) was a British arts administrator and art historian.

Biography

John Rothenstein was born in London in 1901, the son of Sir

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

. The family was connected to the

Bloomsbury Set The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Stra ...

. John Rothenstein studied at Worcester College, Oxford, and became friends with

T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...

. He shared rooms with novelist

William Gerhardie William Alexander Gerhardie OBE FRSL (21 November 1895 – 15 July 1977) was an Anglo-Russian novelist and playwright. His first novel, ''Futility'' (1922), drew on his experiences of fighting the Bolsheviks in pre-revolutionary Russia. Life a ...

. After serving as Director of

Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

, he was appointed Director of Sheffield City Art Galleries (1932-38) where he oversaw the establishment and opening of the

Graves Art Gallery Graves Art Gallery is an art gallery in Sheffield, England. The gallery is located above the Central Library in Sheffield city centre. It houses permanent displays from the city’s historic and contemporary collection of British and European ar ...

. From 1938–64 Rothenstein was Director of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London. Hs father had been a trustee of the Tate up until a few years before and there were hints of nepotism in the appointment, especially as his father had telephoned the Chairman of the trustees in advance of Rothenstein's job interview. Rothenstein's directorship — the longest to date — was one of the most successful. The Tate's annual purchase fund could not compete with those of US institutions, so few works of modern foreign art were added to the collection. However, he wrote, "Picasso is a Proteus, the prodigiously gifted master of all styles and media". According to

Richard Cork Richard Cork (born 25 March 1947) is a British art historian, editor, critic, broadcaster and exhibition curator. He has been an art critic for the ''Evening Standard'', '' The Listener'', ''The Times'' and the ''New Statesman''. Cork was also ...

, one of Rothenstein's errors was failing to purchase

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

's ''

The Red Studio ''L'Atelier Rouge'', also known as ''The Red Studio,'' is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1911, in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York City. In 2004, ''L'Atelier Rouge'' came in at No. 5 in a poll of 500 art experts voting for ...

'' when it was offered to the Tate Gallery for a few hundred pounds in 1941.John Richardson, ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper''. University of Chicago Press, 1999; , pp. 158-64. Art historian Douglas Cooper began an

open campaign An open campaign can encompass several definitions. An open campaign may be a set of public protest actions against a person (e.g. a politician), an organization (e.g. a private education association), or a corporation with a clear goal and trans ...

to have Rothenstein dismissed by the trustees, which led to an incident in which Rothenstein punched Cooper in the face in 1954, knocking his glasses off. Rothenstein documented the lives of all the major (and many still overlooked) British artists in his ''Modern English Painters'', which has earned him the title of 'The Vasari of British Art' (like Vasari's pioneering ''Lives'', it was revised and reprinted during the author's lifetime). The Tate began hosting temporary exhibitions during this period, organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain, including the major 1960 retrospective of Picasso. Rothenstein acquired such contemporary works as R.B. Kitaj's ''Isaac Babel Riding with Budyonny'' from the artist's first major show at Marlborough Fine Art in 1963. In 1964 he retired from the Tate to Oxfordshire where he wrote three volumes of autobiography. An annual lecture named in his honour now takes place at Tate Britain.

Honours

Rothenstein was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the 1948

King's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are prese ...

, and knighted in the 1952

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

. On 19 February 1965 he was installed as the

Rector of the University of St Andrews The Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is the president of the University Court of the University of St Andrews; the University Court is the supreme governing body of the University. Overview The Rector is elected every three years by ...

and received an honorary Doctor of Laws.

Works

* ''The Life and Death of Conder'' (1938) J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. London * ''Modern English Painters'' (3 vols., 1952–74) * ''The Tate Gallery'', ' The World of Art Library' series. Thames & Hudson (1962) * ''Autobiography'': ''Summer's Lease, 1901-1938'' (1965); ''Bright Day, Hideous Night, 1939-1965'' (1966) * ''The Artists of the 1890's'' (1928) George Routledge & Sons Ltd. London

References

External links

*
William Roberts's pamphlet attacking Rothenstein's coverage of him in ''Modern English Painters''
accessed 28 July 2014.
Spalding, Frances, "John Rothenstein’s turbulent time at the Tate," ''Apollo'', 26 October 2018.
(Review of Clark, Adrian, ''Fighting On All Fronts: John Rothenstein in the Art World'', London, UK: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2018.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rothenstein, John 1901 births 1992 deaths British art historians British curators Directors of the Tate galleries Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Knights Bachelor People educated at Bedales School Rectors of the University of St Andrews 20th-century British historians