Mark Gertler

The English artist Mark Gertler, born in 1891, came from a Jewish-Polish family. Gertler is regarded as one of the most important key figures in British art of the early 20th century. Already as a child he showed great talent for drawing. At the age of 17, thanks to a scholarship from the Jewish Education Aid Society, Gertler was able to enrol as a student at the renowned Slade School of Art in London, where he studied for a total of four years. At the art school he met the artists Paul Nash , Stanley Spencer, David Bomberg, Christopher Nevinson and Dora Carrington . Before that he had taken evening classes at Regent Street School and also had to earn his salary as a simple worker in a stained glass window workshop.