Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918), Painter and poet

Sitter in 2 portraits
Artist of 1 portrait
Isaac Rosenberg’s parents emigrated from Lithuania and arrived in London in 1897. He started writing poetry when he was fourteen years old, encouraged by the librarian at Whitechapel. The library later also became the meeting place for his fellow-artists David Bomberg and Mark Gertler who were part of the Whitechapel Group.As a result of friends’ generosity, he was able to afford to attend the Slade School of Fine Art. Night and Day (1912) and Youth (1915) were published before he enlisted in 1915. Despite being a pacifist, he enlisted not out of patriotism, but poverty. Some of his best poems such as 'Break of Day in the Trenches' were written on the Western Front where he was killed in April 1918.