Mark Gertler:
Homage to Roger Fry
Framed (ref: 8006)
Oil on canvas
Tags: Mark Gertler oil still lifes women The Alan M. Fortunoff Collection
Exhibited: London Group, 1934 (No. 70)
Ben Uri Gallery, 1944 (No.59)
Ben Uri Gallery, 1957 (No.19)
The Fine Art Society, Spring 1987
Literature: John Woodeson, 'Mark Gertler, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972, pp.296 & 348, Ill pl. 73
Sarah MacDougal, 'Mark Gertler', John Murray, 2002, p. 288
Extended Provenance: Dr Andrew Morland, Mr & Mrs Peyton Skipwith
Alan Fortunoff (1932-2000) was one of America's great collectors of British realist painting of the first half of the twentieth century, with a particular passion for the work of Joseph Southall. Following his death his Southall collection was exhibited and dispersed through an exhibition at The Fine Art Society, but his widow retained until now the core of collection. Having recently moved to warmer climes and an apartment with large windows, amazing views and little wall space, Liss Fine Art have the unique privilege of offering these XX works, most of which have not been seen on the market since the 1980s.
Sarah McDougal records that 'In mid-September 1934 Gertler and [Thomas] Balston travelled through Spain, visiting Madrid and Toledo, where they saw "numbers of beautiful things", before returning to britain. In a copy of The Times he had bought in Barcelona, Gertler read with dismay of Roger Fry's death. "What a loss!" he wrote to Mary Hutchinson, "I dare say you feel it very much." He was saddened also by the thought that his forthcoming exhibition [at the Leicester Galleries] would be "the first show of mine not seen by Roger". That autumn as a tribute to Fry's influence he painted a still life entitled 'Homage to Roger Fry.'
The iconography of this work and its connection to Roger Fry, apart from the classical bust, is unclear, but Woodeson records that gertler felt that there were often 'parallels between his closely organised designs and music.'
