Albert Daniel Rutherston (1881–1953), painter of figures and landscape, book illustrator and designer of posters and stage sets, was born in Bradford, Yorkshire of German Jewish descent. Rutherston was the younger brother of the painter Sir William Rothenstein but changed his name in 1914 due to anti German feeling around the time of the outbreak of the First World War.
Rutherston was a pupil at Bradford Grammar School and from 1898 to 1902 he attended Slade School of Art.
Rutherston started as a realist painter but changed to a more decorative style around 1910, the year of his first one man exhibition at the Carfax Gallery.
Rutherston served in the Army in Palestine between 1916–19.
Rutherston then wrote the book "Decoration in the Art of the Theatre" published in 1919 and edited the Contemporary British Artists series between 1923–27.
In 1927 Rutherston illustrated the Thomas Hardy book Yuletide In A Younger World, and designed posters and tickets for the London Underground. He then held the post of Ruskin Master of Drawing in Oxford from 1929 to 1948. He also designed stage sets for Harley Granville-Barker's productions.
Albert Daniel Rutherston died at Ouchy-Lausanne, Switzerland on 14 July 1953.