In 1931 Roger Fry commented in the New Statesman, 'Gertler's intensely individual style isolates him curiously from all his colleagues. He is I suspect the most ambitious artist of the modern British school. The kind of perservering courage that impels him to squeeze the last drop of significance from his subject is rare in this country where we tend to admire the man who succeeds without taking too much trouble' (J. Woodeson, Mark Gertler, London, 1972, p. 290).