MARKS, B. S.:

English artist; born in 1827 at Cardiff, where he received his art education and followed the profession of portrait-painter until his removal to London in 1867. As a native of Wales he became Royal Cambrian Academician. During the more than thirty years of his professional career in London he has executed commissions for many distinguished sitters, including the Prince of Wales, Lord Rothschild, Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler, the late Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Aberdare, and Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne. Marks is an active communal worker in connection with Jewish schools and institutions. He was a member of the committees of the Jews' Free School and of the Westminster and the Bayswater schools, and for a long period acted as honorary art teacher to the pupils and teaching staffs.

In the general community Marks has been active in the free-library and art-school movements, and contributed to the establishment of the Cardiff and Ealing libraries. His son, Percy L. Marks, is an architect, and has published "Principles of Planning" (London, 1901). His daughter, Constance Isabelle, has shown considerable mathematical talent, having become editor of the mathematical department of the "Educational Times." Two other daughters, Anne and Gertrude, follow their father's profession, while another, Helena, has published several songs.

Bibliography:
  • Young Israel, Aug., 1898;
  • Jewish Year Book, 1900-1 and 1903-4.
J. G. L.
Images of pages