Michael Rothenstein RA

(1908-1993)

Michael Rothenstein was a British painter, printmaker, illustrator, and teacher who became one of the most experimental printmakers in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Hampstead, London, he was educated at home before studying at Chelsea Polytechnic and later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Although affected by periods of depression in his early years, he held his first solo exhibition at the Warren Gallery, London, in 1931. During the late 1930s Rothenstein produced Neo-Romantic landscapes and in 1940 was commissioned by the Recording Britain project to paint endangered sites in Sussex. He later moved to Great Bardfield in Essex, becoming a central figure in the influential artistic community there alongside artists including Edward Bawden and Kenneth Rowntree. Rothenstein played a major role in organising the celebrated Great Bardfield Artists exhibitions during the 1950s. From the mid-1950s he increasingly abandoned painting in favour of printmaking, developing innovative approaches to linocut, etching, and lithography. He worked closely with Curwen Studio and Stanley Jones during the formative years of the Studio and authored the influential book Frontiers of Printmaking (1966). Rothenstein was elected ARA in 1977 and RA in 1984. His work is held in the collections of the Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Fry Art Gallery