'Mother and Child', Sir William Rothenstein

Artwork details

Artist

Sir William Rothenstein (1872‑1945)

Title

Mother and Child

Date 1903

MediumOil paint on canvas

Dimensionssupport: 969 x 765 mm frame: 1270 x 1025 x 90 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Purchased 1988

Reference

T05075

Not on display

Summary

The painting shows the artist's wife Alice with their infant son John in the first-floor sitting room of their house at 26 Church Row, Hampstead. Rothenstein married Alice Knewstub (the actress Alice Kingsley) in 1899. The couple first lived at Edwardes Square, Kensington before moving to the larger house at Hampstead in November 1902. The baby Alice was then expecting died immediately after birth, in December. John, their first child, had been born on 11 July 1901, and was therefore about age two at the time of this portrait. Their second surviving child, Rachel, born in December 1903, was probably expected at the time this painting was made.

Rothenstein's depiction of detail was accurate, and the Queen Anne interior of the house remains virtually unchanged today, apart from a built-in bookcase… (read more)