Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-gertler-1156" aria-label="More by Mark Gertler" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Mark Gertler</a>
Artists Mother
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1944
actions: postures and motions
adults
chair
clothing and personal items
dress
ethnicity
furnishings
Gertler
hands clasped
individuals: female
Jewish
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
sitting
woman
<p>Gertler was born in Spitalfields, London, and studied at the Slade School of Art from 1908 to 1912. In his student years, he painted many portraits of his family, the majority of which are of his mother, Golda. His letters of the time reveal how much her simplicity and stability mattered to him. She in turn followed her son's career with great interest. Gertler wrote 'Her entire happiness is bound up in my progress'. The many paintings and drawings which Gertler made of his mother between 1911 and 1913 span a range of pictorial styles, each becoming more bold and simplified. This portrait, the first of the series, presents Golda in the usual naturalistic style of the Edwardian period.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
30 September 2002 – 1 December 2002
2002-12-01
30 September 2002 – 1 December 2002
2002-12-01
2002-09-30
Ben Uri Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.benuri.org.uk/
2002-09-30
Mark Gertler
Loan-out
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
2012-01-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-01-31
Migrations
Exhibition
12 February 2018 – 21 October 2018
2018-10-21
12 February 2018 – 21 October 2018
2018-10-21
2018-02-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-02-12
Mark Gertler
Collection based display
The Artist’s Mother
support: 660 × 559 mm
frame: 873 × 785 × 87 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1944
<p>Gertler was born in Spitalfields, London, and  studied at the Slade School of Art from 1908 to  1912. In his student years, he painted many  <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> of his family, the majority of which are  of his mother, Golda. His letters of the time  reveal how much her simplicity and stability  mattered to him. She in turn followed her son's  career with great interest. Gertler wrote 'Her  entire happiness is bound up in my progress'. The  many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> which Gertler made of  his mother between 1911 and 1913 span a range of  pictorial styles, each becoming more bold and  simplified. This portrait, the first of the  series, presents Golda in the usual naturalistic  style of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edwardian" title="Glossary definition for 'Edwardian'"><span>Edwardian</span></a> period.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05557</b>	THE ARTIST'S MOTHER 1911
<br/> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘Mark Gertler July, 1911.’ t.r.</p>
<p>Canvas, 26×22 (66×56), including black border,  3/8 (0·75).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the Leicester Galleries 1944.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sir Michael Sadler.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., winter 1911 (25), as ‘Portrait of an Elderly Woman’; Leicester Galleries, May–June 1941 (18); <i>Selected Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture from the Collection of the late Sir Michael Sadler</i>, Leicester Galleries, January–February 1944 (85, repr.); R.A., 1944 (15); Whitechapel Art Gallery, June–July 1949 (5).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Allan Gwynne-Jones, <i>Portrait Painters</i>, 1950, p.37, repr. pl.158; John Rothenstein, <i>Modern English Painters: Lewis to Moore</i>, 1956, p.208, repr. pl.19.
<br/><i>Repr:</i>
John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1962, p.253.</p>
<p>See <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gertler-the-artists-mother-n05121" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05121</span></a>, a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> of the same subject. A label on the frame of <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gertler-the-artists-mother-n05557" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05557</span></a>, apparently in the artist's own hand, states: ‘<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>Portrait</span></a> of an Elderly Woman. Price £35, by Mark Gertler.’</p>
<p>This is one of several <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> by Gertler of his mother. An earlier one, dated 1908 and belonging to Mr and Mrs S. Samuels, shows her wearing the same dress. Another dated 1909 belongs to Mrs Napier. Among the later portraits one of 1913 belonged to Sir Edward Marsh and was bequeathed to the Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, through the C.A.S.; a further one dated 1924 was in the Collection of J. W. Freshfield and passed to that of R. A. Bevan.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults chair clothing and personal items dress ethnicity furnishings Gertler hands clasped individuals: female Jewish named individuals objects people portraits sitting woman