The first of The Nobile Folios explores Bathers 1917–18 by the acclaimed British painter Mark Gertler (1891–?1939). The painting is set alongside Shaun Levin’s original short story ‘Trees at a Sanatorium’.
Mark Gertler was born in Spitalfields in London’s East End in 1891, the youngest son of Jewish immigrant parents. Bathers 1917–18 was painted when Gertler was only 26 and dates from a period of intensive research into Cézanne. Bathers is amongst his seminal works from the World War I period.
Shaun Levin’s story ‘Trees at a Sanatorium’ was written specifically for this publication. It is a meditation on landscape and the importance of intimacy in artistic creation. Levin wrote this story visiting places where Gertler stayed—whether out of choice or necessity—from the sanatorium at Banchory in Scotland, to Catalonia, to Paris and the gardens at Garsington Manor.
