MARK GERTLER | Nude

Leicester Galleries, London from whom acquired by Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 1951

London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Opening Exhibition, 9th January - 15th February 1944, cat. no.29;
London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Mark Gertler, 16th November - 17th December 1944, cat. no.21;
London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Festival of Britain, Anglo-Jewish Exhibition 1851-1951, 9th July - 3rd August 1951, cat. no.28;
London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Jankel Adler, Mark Gertler, Bernard Meninsky, 19th June - 28th July 1957;
London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Exhibition of Selected Works from the Permanent Collection of the Ben Uri Art Gallery, 16th September - 23rd October 1980, cat. no.30; 
London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Mark Gertler - the Early and the Late Years, 30th March - 27th May 1982, cat. no.60;
London, Philips, The Ben Uri Story: from Art Society to Museum: The Influence of Anglo-Jewish Artists on the Modern British Movement, 2001, p.81, cat. no.29, illustrated;
London, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Mark Gertler: A New Perspective, 30th September - 1st December 2002, cat. no.45 (as Nude/Sleeping Nude);
London, Osborne Samuel, Apocalypse: Unveiling a Lost Masterpiece by Marc Chagall plus 50 Selected Master Works from the Ben Uri Collection, 8th - 31st January 2010.

World of Art Illustrated, 17th May 1939, p.10, illustrated;
Walter Schwab and Julia Weiner (eds), Jewish Artists: The Ben Uri Collection: Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London, 1994, cat. no.109, illustrated plate IV;
The Public Catalogue Foundation, Oil Paintings in Public Ownership: Camden, The Public Catalogue Foundation, London, 2013, Vol. 11, p.15, illustrated.

The canvas is original. There is a further unfinished painting by the same hand to the verso of the canvas. The canvas undulates very slightly in places and there are faint stretcher bar marks towards the upper and lower edges. There is very light frame abrasion to the corners and to the extreme edges in a few places, with one or two spots of associated loss to the extreme lower edge to the left of centre. There is a pinhole at the lower edge towards the lower left corner with an associated fleck of loss. There are two very thin curved lines of cracking at the centre of the lower edge, only visible upon close inspection, with one or two possible further more minor instances elsewhere. There is a light rub in the lower right quadrant and a very faint scuff to the same area. There is light surface dirt and a small number of instances of detritus. There is a thick layer of varnish. This excepting, the work appears to be in excellent overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals a thick layer of varnish which makes a reading difficult but there appears to be no obvious signs of fluorescence or retouching. The work is held in a gilt painted moulded frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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‘I feel now more than ever, that there is only one kind of life worthwhile, and that is the life devoted without compromise to some good work or cause, and to me this is represented by painting.’ (Mark Gertler to Valentine Dobree, 12th February 1925 quoted in Sarah MacDougall, Mark Gertler, John Murray, London, 2002, p.233)

The present work will be included in Sarah MacDougall's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of Mark Gertler, to be published by Yale University Press.