Mark Gertler (artist)

Mark Gertler (9 December 1891 – 23 June 1939), born Marks Gertler, was a British painter of figure subjects, portraits and still-life.

His early life and his relationship with Dora Carrington were the inspiration for Gilbert Cannan's novel Mendel. The characters of Loerke in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love and Gombauld in Aldous Huxley's Crome Yellow were based on him.

Marks Gertler was born on 9 December 1891 in Spitalfields, London, the youngest child of Polish Jewish immigrants, Louis Gertler and Kate "Golda" Berenbaum. He had four older siblings: Deborah (b. 1881), Harry (b. 1882), Sophie (b. 1883) and Jacob "Jack" (b. 1886).

In 1892 his parents took the family to his mother's native city, Przemyśl, Austria-Hungary (now Poland), where they worked as innkeepers. Though Louis was popular with his customers, mainly Austrian soldiers, the inn was a failure. One night without telling anyone Louis simply left for America (ca. 1893) in search of work. He eventually sent word to Golda telling her that once he was settled she was to bring the children to live with him there. However, this venture also failed and his family never joined him in America.

Instead Louis returned to Britain, and had his family join him in London in 1896, when Marks' forename was anglicised as 'Mark'.

From an early age Gertler showed signs of a great talent for drawing. On leaving school in 1906, he enrolled in art classes at Regent Street Polytechnic. Unfortunately, due to his family's poverty, he was forced to drop out after a year, and in December 1907 began working as an apprentice at Clayton & Bell, a stained glass company. He disliked his work there and rarely spoke of it in later years. While there he attended evening classes at the Polytechnic. In 1908 Gertler was placed third in a national art competition; this inspired him to apply for a scholarship from the Jewish Education Aid Society (JEAS) to resume his studies as an artist. The application was successful. Upon the advice of the prominent Jewish artist William Rothenstein, in 1908 he enrolled at the Slade School of Art, University College, London. During the four years he spent at the Slade, Gertler was a contemporary of Paul Nash, Edward Wadsworth, C.R.W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer and Isaac Rosenberg, among others.

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