This large still-life painting dates from 1926, with the confident use of colour and elaborately arranged composition typical of Gertler’s style at the time. A collector of Staffordshire figures, he often included them in his compositions – indeed, the figure depicted here can also be seen in an earlier painting of 1921, entitled ‘The Hunter’.
Mark Gertler (British, 1891 - 1939)
Mark Gertler was a key figure in early twentieth-century British Art. The child of Polish-Jewish immigrants, Gertler was a talented child. He won a place at Slade School of Art, London, where he studied from 1908 to 1912. Over the next decade Gertler’s style developed from a naturalistic approach to one more directly influenced by both French and English post-Impressionism: he employed bold colours and simplified forms in his paintings. Despite collapsing with tuberculosis in 1920 and spending periods in sanitariums for the next sixteen years, the 1920s saw him gain his most commercial success. In 1931 Gertler began teaching part-time at Westminster School of Art. However, plagued by ill health and depression, he committed suicide in June 1939.
