William Rothenstein

The son of a prosperous German Jewish wool merchant who had settled in Bradford, England, the painter William Rothenstein studied in London and Paris. He was known especially for his portraits of famous men, over two hundred of which are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and for his work as an official war artist in both world wars. At the turn of the century, he produced an important group of paintings of East End immigrant synagogue life, but, aside from his portraits of contemporary Jews (such as that of the graphic designer and lithographer Barnett Freedman), he never returned to Jewish subjects in later decades.