WOLMARK, ALFRED

WOLMARK, ALFRED (1877–1961), British painter. Born in Warsaw, he was taken to the East End of London as a child and studied in the Royal Academy Schools. He made his reputation at the Whitechapel Art Exhibition of 1906, where his work was praised by perceptive art critics. In his early period, he painted Whitechapel scenes and Rembrandtesque studies of Jewish subjects, such as rabbis and talmudic students. Later he developed into a brilliant colorist. His use of color was so bright that in an exhibition of the International Society of Artists no English painter dared hang work next to his. His work was finally placed next to Van Gogh's. Wolmark did portraits of many noted literary figures and, in 1925, provided illustrations for an edition of the works of israel zangwill . A retrospective exhibit of Wolmark's work was held at London's Ben-Uri Gallery in 2004. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online.