The artist’s father, Moritz Rothenstein (1836–1914), a Jewish immigrant manufacturer from northern Germany, 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, where he 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). Rothenstein's portrait of his father with his apparently stern gaze, behind Victorian mutton-chop whiskers, disguises his warmth of character – it was he who had read the children their bedtime stories. Moritz also assisted William early in his career by purchasing work from him at critical moments and, after the birth of his first child, he also guaranteed him a small annual income.