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

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

Biography

John Rothenstein was born in London in 1901, the son of Sir William Rothenstein. The family was connected to the Bloomsbury Set. John Rothenstein attended

Bedales School Bedales School is a coeducational boarding and day public school, in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by Amy Garrett Badley and John Haden Badley in reaction to the li ...

, studied at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, and became friends with T. E. Lawrence. He shared rooms with novelist William Gerhardie. After serving as Director of Leeds City Art Gallery, he was appointed Director of Sheffield City Art Galleries (1933–38) where he oversaw the establishment and opening of the Graves Art Gallery. 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 UK ...

in London. His 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, 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 arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

's '' The Red Studio'' 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 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 The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

, 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 1948 King's Birthday Honours, and

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

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 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws.

Selected works

* ''The Artists of the 1890's'' (1928) George Routledge & Sons Ltd. London * ''Nineteenth Century Painting: A Study in Conflict'' (1932) John Lane, The Bodley Head. London * ''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)

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