Isaac Rosenberg

Acquired directly from the Artist by Sir Edward Marsh, 8th May 1914
Acquired from the above by Christopher Hassall
Acquired by Stanley Eker by 1975

London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Isaac Rosenberg, Memorial Exhibiton of Paintings & Drawings, 23rd June - 17th July 1937, cat. no.6;
Leeds, Brotherton Gallery, Isaac Rosenberg, May - June 1959, cat. no.20, illustrated;
London, National Book League, Isaac Rosenberg, 19th August - 5th September 1975, cat. no.49, illustrated;
Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery, Isaac Rosenberg, 20th September - 19th October 1975 (details untraced).

Gordon Bottomley and Denys Harding (eds.), The Collected Works of Isaac Rosenberg, Chatto and Windus, London, 1937, p.192, illustrated;
Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh - Patron of the Arts, a Biography, Longmans, London, 1959, p.281, illustrated;
The Times Literary Supplement, 29th August 1975, p.959;
Joseph Cohen, Journey to the Trenches, The Life of Isaac Rosenberg, 1890-1918, Robson Books, London, 1975, p.64, illustrated p.99;
Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Isaac Rosenberg, Cecil Woolf, London, 1975, pp.72, 101, illustrated p.102;
Jean Liddiard, Isaac Rosenberg, The Half Used Life, Victor Gollancz, London, 1975, p.192, illustrated;
Blue Coat Gallery, Liverpool, An Honest Patron - Tribute to Sir Edward Marsh (exh. cat.), 1976, p.42, illustrated;
Ian Parsons (ed.), The Collected Works of Isaac Rosenberg, Chatto and Windus, London, 1984, illustrated pl.VIII.

There are two pin holes visible in the top corners, with very minor scuffing to the extreme edge of the board, not visible in the present frame, and minor compressing and scuffing to all four corners. There is a slight area of compression to the extreme top right edge, c.13cm. in from the right hand corner, and c.1.5cm. in length, not visible in the present frame. There is minor surface dirt and studio detritus, with a few minor possible scratches to the surface, perhaps occurring before the work was framed, and the most prominent of which runs down through the torso of the male figure. This excepting the work appears in good overall condition, with strong colours throughout. Ultraviolet light reveals a few scattered instances of fluorescence and possible retouchings to the upper left quadrant in the sky, with further possible flecks appearing elsewhere. Housed behind glass in a thick gilt wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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‘To create is to apply pulsating rhythmic principles to the part, a unity, another nature is created’

(The Artist, from On Modern Art, cited in Ian Parsons (ed.), The Collected Works on Isaac Rosenberg, Chatto and Windus, London, 1984, p.299)

Isaac Rosenberg is today recognised as one of the most important poets of the First World War, and his role as an artist in the opening years of the 20^th Century is a pivotal one, training at the Slade from 1911 alongside fellow students including Mark Gertler, David Bomberg, C.R. Nevinson, William Roberts and Paul Nash.  Born in Bristol of Jewish immigrant parents, Rosenberg was brought up in Whitechapel in the East End of London. An exceptional poet, Rosenberg also showed early promise in his marked talent for drawing, having gained through a chance encounter with Mrs. Lily Delissa Joseph in the National Gallery in 1912, the chance to train under the strict discipline of Professor Tonks at the Slade in London. Here he mastered his rich sense of colour, atmosphere and draughtsmanship, as beautifully displayed in the present work, which forms one of the most important and respected works within his oeuvre. Like many of his fellow students, Rosenberg volunteered for active service at the outset of the First World War and was assigned to the 12^th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, known as the ‘bantam battalion’ for the inclusion of men below the usual minimum height requirement of 5’3’’. He served on the Western front, where on 1^stApril 1918 he died during a night patrol, north-east of Arras, aged just twenty-seven. 

Sacred Love was purchased by Sir Edward Marsh in 1914, whom Rosenberg had first met the previous year at the Café Royal, and took pride of place in Marsh’s guest bedroom alongside Stanley Spencer’s The Apple Gathers (gifted by Marsh to the Tate, London in 1946). With its wonderfully dry texture, and soft, pallid tones, the work glows with a captivating dream-like intensity that is at once so reminiscent of Blake, who was to greatly inspire Rosenberg’s fellow student Stanley Spencer at the time. It sings with the promise and talent of an artist that would have surely gone on to achieve an even greater degree of recognition in his later life.