Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
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>
Jewish Family
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Marsh through the Contemporary Art Society 1954
actions: postures and motions
adults
child
children
clothing and personal items
ethnicity
Gertler family
groups
hat
Jewish
man, old
named families
objects
people
portraits
sitting
standing
woman
<p>Gertler often took his subjects from the Jewish community in Whitechapel where he had grown up. Here he presents an archetypal Jewish family using simplified forms and consciously archaic figure types, inspired by folk art and early Italian painting, sources which were influential among the Bloomsbury artists with whom he was associated at this time. Gertler’s mother regularly modelled for him, and his depictions of her reveal a complex interplay between different constructions of Jewish identity and artistic influences. This shows her as a peasant wearing a headscarf, although she had appeared in earlier portraits as a smartly-dressed Edwardian matron.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2013</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
24 September 2011 – 31 July 2012
2012-07-31
24 September 2011 – 8 January 2012
2012-01-08
2011-09-24
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
1 February 2012 – 30 April 2012
2012-04-30
2012-02-01
Millennium Gallery (Sheffield, UK)
http://www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk
1 May 2012 – 31 July 2012
2012-07-31
2012-05-01
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2011-09-24
GBAD: Relative Values: The Family in British Art
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
Jewish Family
support: 660 × 508 mm
frame: 859 × 702 × 103 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Marsh through the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1954
<div class="text">
<p>Gertler often took his subjects from the Jewish community in Whitechapel where he had grown up. Here he presents an archetypal Jewish family using simplified forms and consciously archaic figure types, inspired by folk art and early Italian painting, sources which were influential among the Bloomsbury artists with whom he was associated at this time. Gertler’s mother regularly modelled for him, and his depictions of her reveal a complex interplay between different constructions of Jewish identity and artistic influences. This shows her as a peasant wearing a headscarf, although she had appeared in earlier portraits as a smartly-dressed Edwardian matron.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2013-10-29T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N06231</b> JEWISH FAMILY 1913
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Mark Gertler, 1<sup>st</sup> Sept1913’ t.l.
<br/>Canvas, 26×20 (66×51), including a black border  1/2 (1·25) wide painted round the edge of the canvas.
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Edward Marsh through the Contemporary Art Society 1954.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sir Edward Marsh by 1914 (probably purchased from the artist).
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Twentieth Century Art</i>, Whitechapel Art Gallery, May–June 1914 (270); N.E.A.C.,
<br/> June–July 1914 (54), as ‘Family Group’; C.A.S., <i>Paintings and Drawings</i>, Grosvenor House, June–July 1923 (21); N.E.A.C. <i>Retrospective Exhibition</i>, January–February, 1925 (59), and Manchester, April–May 1925 (139); <i>London Group Retrospective</i>, New Burlington Galleries, April–May 1928 (60); <i>Contemporary British Art</i>, Whitechapel Art Gallery, October–December 1929 (290); Ben Uri Art Gallery, November–December 1944 (51), as ‘Jewish Group’; Whitechapel Art Gallery, June–July 1949 (8), as ‘Jewish Family’; Arts Council tour, <i>Some 20th Century English Paintings and Drawings</i>, Wales, 1950 (60); <i>Artists Between the Wars: Memorial</i>, Studio House, Hampstead, January– February 1950 (62); <i>The Collection of the late Sir Edward Marsh</i>, Leicester Galleries, May 1953 (57).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> John Rothenstein, <i>Modern English Painters: Lewis to Moore</i>, 1956, p.211.
<br/><i>Repr:</i>
<i>Tate Gallery Report 1954–55, 1955</i>, between pp.18 and 19.</p>
<p>Probably painted from members of the artist's family, it is one of his first works in a more formal, somewhat <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>Cubist</span></a> style, evidently influenced by Roger Fry's <i>Second <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/post-impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Post-Impressionism'"><span>Post-Impressionist</span></a> Exhibition</i> of 1912.</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 child children clothing and personal items ethnicity Gertler family groups hat Jewish man, old named families objects people portraits sitting standing woman