ALBERT RUTHERSTON, RWS
(1881-1953)
Page for the Emperor – Costume Design for Androcles and the Lion
Variously inscribed: “Androcles”/No.28/ Two Pages for The Emperor/ Mr Alfree/Mr Bugh/King
Watercolour, pen and ink and gold paint
Framed
25 by 19 cm., 9 ¾ by 7 ½ in.
(frame size 43 by 36 cm., 17 by 14 ¼ in.)
Provenance:
By descent in the family of the artist.
Exhibited:
London, Sally Hunter Fine Art, Albert Rutherston – Drawings, Theatre Designs & other Treasures, 2016, no.75.
The present work is a costume design for a page in Androcles and the Lion, a play in two acts by George Bernard. Rutherston designed the set and costumes for the 1913 premier production performed at St James’s Theatre, London and produced by Harley Granville-Barker.
Born Albert Daniel Rothenstein, he was the youngest of the six children of Moritz and Bertha Rothenstein, German-Jewish immigrants who had settled in Bradford, Yorkshire in the 1860s. He and his siblings proved to be a hugely talented and artistic family, his elder brother became Sir William Rotherstein (1872-1945), the artist and director of the Royal College of Art; two of his other siblings, Charles Rutherston and Emily Hesslein, both accumulated major modern British and French art collections and his nephew Sir John Rothenstein was direct of the Tate Gallery.
He was educated at Bradford Grammar School before moving to London in 1898 to study at the Slade School of Art where he became close friends with Augustus John and William Orpen. He met Walter Sickert during a painting holiday in France in 1900 and by introducing Sickert to Spencer Gove became instrumental in the beginning of the Camden Town Group. He was one of Sickert’s most frequent companions and was one of the original members of the Fitzroy Street Group. Rutherston had a sociable and attractive personality, he frequently travelled abroad with other artists including Max Beerbohm, Spencer Gore, Walter Russell and Edna Clarke Hall...
Category
1910s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors