BLOCH, MARTIN

BLOCH, MARTIN (1883–1954), German expressionist painter, who became a master of British landscape. Bloch lived in Spain during World War I and subsequently spent many summers painting in Italy. In these years he was influenced by Cézanne, the "fauves," and the German expressionists. When Hitler came to power he fled to England, where he was interned during World War II. During his internment he restricted himself to black and white studies in contM crayons heightened with red chalk. His mature style emerged with a period of painting in Dorset in 1947. He developed a deep love of the British landscape, retaining a German expressionist sense of the dramatic but abandoning the tendency to exaggerate. His developed sense of color became subtle and harmonious. A posthumous exhibition held in 1955 established his reputation. -ADD BIBLIOGRAPHY: D.F. Jenkins (ed.), Y bryniau tywyll y cymclau trymion ("The Darks Hills, the Heavy Clouds: An Expression of Landscape Painting," 1981); C. da Costa, Martin Bloch, 1883–1954: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings (South London Art Gallery, 1984). (Sonja Beyer (2nd ed.)