MARK GERTLER (1891-1939) Biography

Provenance

London, The Leicester Galleries

Description / Expertise

Mark Gertler, son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, made his first drawing at the age of three, and by the time the family was living in London in 1898, at the age of six he began to show his talent. In 1907, aged sixteen, he was apprenticed to Clayton and Bell, the stained glass manufacturers, but Gertler found the work frustrating and unfulfilling. With the help of his early patron William Rothenstein, and the Jewish Educational Aid Society, he entered the Slade School of Art in 1908. His first real friend there was C R W Nevinson, who introduced him to a brilliant group of young artists, Paul and John Nash, William Roberts, Stanley Spencer and John Currie. In 1914, the art collector and philanthropist, Edward Marsh became Gertler's patron.

At the Slade, Mark Gertler was a prize pupil, but his outright rejection of all he was taught was frustrating for his tutors. His works showed a self-confident strength of form and colour. As his fame and the collectors of his work grew, after a visit to Paris in the 1920s, Gertler began to change the course of his work in a new direction, painting a series of the female nude. He decided to paint only from nature, with his colours, which had become somewhat muted. growing stronger and richer again. Gertler’s taste led him in search of models with Renoir-like features. I am working hard and with much trouble, chiefly on account of my sitters. I am full of a new motive and feverish to express it (1).

(1) John Woodeson, Mark Gertler, Biography of a painter, 1891-1939, London, 1972, page 267