M. ROTHENSTEIN | archive of c.95 letters by artists and writers to Rothenstein, chiefly 1940s

ROTHENSTEIN, MICHAEL

Archive of 95 letters to him by artists and writers, discussing their theories of painting and individual works, comprising autograph letters signed by:

Graham Sutherland, 8 letters and cards, discussing his industrial landscapes, his reservations about his own "wartime semi journalism", and contemporary art ("...scarcely any artist alive can combine largeness & grandeur of pattern with intimacy & continuous profundity..."), 17 pages, chiefly 8vo, 1941-c.1948; Ben Nicholson, 3 letters and cards, one discussing "that pl[a]y[in]g card p[ain]t[in]g of mine", 4 pages, late-1940s; Henry Moore, 4 letters (one typed) and cards ("...I don't remember feeling that I was being the first to draw the shelter scenes..."), 6 pages, 1947-50; Duncan Grant, 4 letters, one discussing a still life, 5 pages, 1946; John Piper, 9 letters and cards, 18 pages, 1945-49; John Minton, 9 letters and cards, one enclosing autograph manuscript entitled "Notes from Lectures on Painting and Drawing" ("...The essence of drawing is never decorative: the essence is, as in an arch, in the contrary stresses which make it stand as a structure...", 5 pages), another enclosing a curriculum vitiae, altogether 18 pages, 1946-c.49; Cecil Collins, 35 letters and cards, with an account of a painting ("The Forest"); Keith Vaughan, 5 letters and cards, with an enclosed autograph manuscript discussing his recent paintings, altogether 19 pages; Edward Bawden, 4 letters and cards; Herbert Read, 4 letters and cards; Patrick Heron, 3 letters; Robert MacBryde, 2 letters and an enclosed curriculum vitae; Edith Sitwell; Kenneth Clarke; William Scott; David Gascoyne; Vanessa Bell; chiefly late 1940s; all letters loose in a series of plastic folders

AN EXCEPTIONAL GROUP OF LETTERS BY ARTISTS, DISCUSSING THEIR WORK AND THEORIES OF PAINTING. Michael Rothenstein (1908-1993), an artist now best remembered for his revolutionary printmaking, had been at the heart of Britain's artworld since childhood: his father was the painter Sir William Rothenstein and his elder brother, Sir John, was the long-serving director of the Tate. Much of this correspondence concerns Rothenstein's 1947 book, Looking at Paintings, and letters found here by Duncan Grant, Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson, and John Minton are quoted in the book.

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