Charles Conder 1898

Rothenstein met Conder (‘a blond, rather heavily built man, blue-eyed, bearded, with long hair parted in the middle, and falling over his eyes.’ Rothenstein, 1938, p. 55) at Julian’s atelier in October 1890 and Rothenstein would become Conder’s closest friend and confidant during his early years in Paris. The present drawing dates to 1898, towards the end of a long friendship which only dissipated with the retreat from Bohemia which followed their respective marriages across the fin de siècle (Rothenstein in 1899 and Conder in 1901).