The artist’s father, Moritz Rothenstein (1836–1914) was a Jewish immigrant from northern Germany. He was a wool manufacturer, who arrived in Bradford in 1859, joining the firm of Schlesinger, an established stuff and woollen merchants, which he eventually took over. He married Bertha Henriette Dux (1844–1912) in 1865 in Hildesheim, and she followed him to Bradford; Moritz became a naturalised British subject in 1867. The couple had five children: Charles (b. 1866), Blanche (b. 1867), Emily (b. 1868), Louisa (b. 1869), William (b. 1872) and Albert (b. 1881). As in other portraits of his father, his apparently stern gaze with his Victorian mutton-chop whiskers disguises his warmth of character – it was he who had read the children their bedtime stories. He also purchased work from William at critical moments in his early career and guaranteed him a small annual income after the birth of his first child.