The Camden Town Group in Context

William Rothenstein became a close friend of Walter Sickert after they met in Paris in 1889. Through this connection he became a founder member of the Fitzroy Street Group in 1907, but by 1910 he was no longer listed as a member and was not involved with the Camden Town Group. However, he had been a co-founder of the Carfax Gallery when it opened in 1898 and had introduced Sickert to the gallery, which went on to host all three Camden Town Group exhibitions. When the London Group was formed Rothenstein stood for election twice – on 6 December 1913 and 3 January 1914 – but both times he was unsuccessful (TGA 806/10/6 and TGA 806/10/6). On the second occasion, as Wendy Baron notes, ‘William Rothenstein secured the impressive total of minus ten votes, only surpassed by two complete outsiders’.

In this letter Rothenstein mentions receiving a book of poetry by Hugh Owen Meredith (1874–1964), most probably his Week-day Poems, which was published in 1911. Rothenstein also refers to some ethnographic books that he has lent to Manson for an article in the Studio. He was fascinated by other cultures and in 1910 had co-founded the India Society with Ernest Havell.

Wendy Baron, Perfect Moderns: A History of the Camden Town Group, Aldershot and Vermont 2000, p.66.
Mary Lago, ‘Rothenstein, Sir William (1872–1945)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, online edn, May 2008, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35842, accessed 3 August 2011.