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Artwork of the Month - September 2014
After the Battle
Artist: Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945)
Medium: Engraving
Status: Permanent collection
Rothenstein attended the Slade School of Art in London at the age of sixteen. In 1889 he moved to Paris to study at the Académie Julian. While there, Rothenstein was influenced by the major artists working in Paris at that time such as James Whistler, Edgar Degas and Henri Fantin-Latour.
With the outbreak of the First World War Rothenstein encouraged the War Office to employ Official War Artists to record first-hand the War and all it entailed. In December 1917 Rothenstein himself was employed as an Official War Artist to the British and Canadian armies on the Western Front. His engravings from this time are a poignant reminder of the devastation that ensued.
Rothenstein went on to become professor of civic art at the University of Sheffield, a principal of the Royal College of Art, a trustee of the Tate Gallery, and a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission. He also wrote numerous books including Men and Memories and Since Fifty.
