Barnett Samuel Marks
(Royal Cambrian Academician) was a Welsh-Jewish portrait painter who was also noted for his social realism paintings.
[2] His father was a watchmaker and auctioneer and an important figure in the establishment of the Jewish community in Cardiff.
His mother's grandfather, a wealthy silversmith and merchant, had arrived in South Wales from Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century and the family had played a key part in establishing the first major Jewish community in Wales at Swansea.
[2] In addition to his early promise as an artist and portrait painter, he played the piano and the ophicleide and took part in cultural events in the town.
[6] In late 1857 his career received a boost when he gained the patronage of the Marchioness of Bute.
[7] Early the following year Marks married his cousin Zipporah from Swansea, the second daughter of his deceased uncle Michael Marks,[2] and he moved from St Mary Street to his own home and studio at 33 Charles Street, Cardiff.
[13] In the early 1860s he supported the Cardiff Free Library, being on the Committee 1865-66, and where he gave art classes for young mechanics.
His studio was initially in Great Portland Street,[15] then at Westbourne Terrace,[16] and later, from 1874, in Fitzroy Square, where his neighbours included Solomon Alexander Hart (librarian, and previously a professor, at the Royal Academy), Ford Madox Brown (artist), Robert William Edis (architect),[17] George Bernard Shaw.
More than ever in London, he was affected by the numbers of homeless children on the streets and the work of Dr. Barnardo inspired a series of diptychs showing groups of boys before and after their rescue.
[28] Marks involved himself in the local community here and supported John Allen Brown in the establishment of the Ealing Free Library,[2] which opened in 1883.
[2] In 1892 he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the then Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) for a public institution in Calcutta (Kolkata).
[44] His first wife died nine months after their Anglican marriage[45] and later that year he renounced the Jewish faith and was baptised.
Percy Leman Marks (1867-1941) was an architect who wrote a number of books on architecture.
