Mark Fisher (born William Mark Fisher) was born in Boston, USA, in 1841 to an English father and an Irish mother. He trained at the Lowell Institute in Boston and at Charles Gleyre's atelier in Paris in 1863, alongside Alfred Sisley, before returning briefly to the United States. Finding little encouragement there, he immigrated to England in 1872, where he became known for vigorous, sunlit landscapes of the English countryside. Elected ARA in 1914 and RA in 1919.. Mark Fisher died in London, England in 1923.
Landscape painter Mark Fisher (ne William Mark Fisher), was born in Boston, USA, in 1841 to an English father and an Irish mother of modest means, and was educated at a Boston public school. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a cousin, a sign and carriage painter, and later studied at the Lowell Institute in Boston, encouraged there by the American landscape painter George Inness. Fisher travelled to Paris, enrolling in 1863 at Charles Gleyre's atelier, where he studied alongside Alfred Sisley and future Impressionists. Fisher returned to the USA afterwards but, finding little encouragement there for his work, decided in 1872 to immigrate permanently to England. Here he married and spent the remainder of his career. His daughter, Margaret Fisher-Prout, would later become a professional painter and was herself elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA).
Fisher worked chiefly in oil and watercolour, developing vigorous, broken brushwork associated with English Impressionism. Critics later traced his art to Continental sources such as Barbizon and the modern Dutch school, rather than to English tradition. His subject matter centred on the rural landscape of southern England: orchards, water meadows, cattle and sheep, rendered with attention to transient effects of light, rather than picturesque detail. The Royal Academy of Arts 's own collection notes describe his central concern as 'the brilliance, the glitter and the freshness of the world' (Royal Academy of Arts), while a reviewer observed that his pictures 'appeal to a large number of people', his rapid method sometimes leaving an unfinished quality (Morning Post, 1911).
From 1872, Fisher exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, showing there in most years from 1905 to 1923, and became a familiar presence in London's galleries. His pictures were attracting collectors by the mid-1880s: in 1886, several of his oils and watercolours were included in the sale of the Manchester collector Charles J. Galloway, alongside works by Corot and George Clausen. He held solo exhibitions of watercolours and oils at the Dutch Gallery in Brook Street, in 1898, and of drawings at 16 St Ann's Place, Manchester, in 1906. He served for a time as President of the Essex Arts Club, xhibiting with it at the Passmore Edwards Museum, Romford Road, in 1906 and at the Essex Museum, Stratford, in 1907. His work also appeared in the Dudley Gallery's Landscape Exhibition in 1902 and 1904, and at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1905; the Leicester Galleries showed Seventy-Five Water-Colours by Mark Fisher in 1906 and a further 70 in 1908, followed in 1910 by a joint exhibition with the Venetian painter, Emma Ciardi. In 1911, Fisher was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1914, his work was included in the Fine Art Section of the Anglo-American Exposition at Shepherd's Bush, London. His standing was confirmed in 1915, when A Vision of the Sea was purchased for the nation under the Chantry Bequest. By this date, he had moved from Steyning in Sussex, by way of Stockbridge, Hampshire, and Widdington in Essex, to Hatfield Heath, near Harlow, Essex. His work was also shown that autumn at the Oxford Art Society's Annual Exhibition. At the Royal Academy's 1916 exhibition, a critic writing in the West Sussex Gazette judged his contribution to be 'in better form' than in several preceding years, singling out 'A Pastoral' and 'Tea in the Garden' (West Sussex Gazette, 1916). Fisher was elected a full Royal Academician in 1919, the same year his paintings were shown at the Leicester Galleries alongside Cameron, Connard, Augustus John, Nicholson, Sims, Sickert, Steer and Orpen; a further solo exhibition of his landscapes, Exhibition of Landscapes by Mark Fisher, R.A., was held at the same gallery in 1920.
Fisher continued to paint into the 1920s, remaining committed to direct, open-air observation of the English countryside throughout his career. On 29 April 1923, while travelling by taxi with his daughter to Liverpool Street Station, Fisher was taken ill and collapsed unconscious on the train. He died the following day at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, England, with four of his paintings then hanging at the Royal Academy. A Memorial Exhibition of his work was held at the Leicester Galleries, London the following year, for which his friend George Clausen wrote an appreciation, praising the 'breadth of life' in Fisher's treatment of sky, trees and animals (Moore & Gwyn Fine Art). Mark Fisher's paintings are held in UK public collections including Tate; British Museum; Royal Academy of Arts,; Aberdeen Archives Gallery & Museums; Ashmolean Museum; Gallery Oldham; Hastings Museum and Art Gallery; Manchester Art Gallery; National Museum Cardiff; Victoria and Albert Museum and Williamson Art Gallery & Museum.
Michal Mel
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Mark Fisher]
Publications related to [Mark Fisher] in the Ben Uri Library