Mark Gertler (1891-1939)

In Head of a Girl Gertler uses the soft shading and bold outline typical of the Slade during this period. The sanguine head of his mother, Golda (Victoria & Albert Museum) is from December of that year. Gertler received several prizes at the Slade during this period including first prize for drawing from the head, and careful draughtsmanship continued to underpin his work throughout his career.

The sitter in the present work is highly reminiscent of the girl in Study of a Girls' Head in Profile, 1911 (Whitworth, Manchester) and Head of a Girl, 1912 (Leeds City Art Gallery), and may have been a Jewish friend or neighbour in the East End, where Gertler was living at the time.

Paul Nash, the previous owner of Head of a Girl, attended the Slade for a year from the autumn of 1910. He recalled the Slade at that time: '[it] was in one of its periodical triumphal flows, when from the unknown deeps arise a few gifted ones. And now, upon the crest of the wave, were riding nearly half a dozen - Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, William Roberts, Edward Wadsworth, Charles Nevinson' (P. Nash, Outline, London, 1949, p. 90).

We are very grateful to Sarah MacDougall and Luke Gertler for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.