Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/155

  of them came to be very popular. Though not altogether in sympathy with Marks's high spirits and humour, Ruskin would not have him repress it. 'Some very considerable part of the higher painter's gift in you,' he wrote to Marks, 'is handicapped by that particular faculty (i.e. humour), which nevertheless, being manifestly an essential and inherent part of you, cannot itself be too earnestly developed.'

In 1874 an introduction to, first duke of Westminster [q. v. Suppl.], resulted in commissions for the paintings in Eaton Hall, Cheshire. His first undertaking was a frieze representing the Canterbury Pilgrims, which occupies two walls of a large saloon. They are painted on lengths of canvas more than thirty-five feet in extent. The designs for the work, executed in water-colours, were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875. The paintings, commenced in 1876, were completed in 1878. There followed a further commission for paintings of birds for the walls of a smaller room.

These birds (twelve panels in all) were exhibited at Agnew's Gallery in May 1880. Ruskin wrote of them: 'I must say how entirely glad I am to see the strength of a good painter set upon Natural History, and this intense fact and abstract of animal character used as a principal element in Decoration.' Marks executed similar decorative work for Stewart Hodgson's houses in South Audley Street, London, and Lythe Hill, Haslemere.

In 1862 Marks removed from Camden Town to Hamilton Terrace, St. John's Wood. With Regent's Park close at hand, he pursued his studies of birds, and he and some friends who lived near founded the artists' club known as the 'Clique.' Among his most intimate friends were Frederick Walker and Charles Keene. He had first met Walker at the Langham Society's Sketching Club, and Walker's twin-sister married Marks's younger brother.

In January 1871 Marks was elected, together with Walker and Woolner, to the associateship of the Royal Academy. He had exhibited there in the previous year 'St. Francis preaching to the Birds.' He was admitted an associate of the Water-colour Society in the following March. After the appearance of 'Convocation' in the summer of 1878 he was elected a full member of the Academy. His diploma work, 'Science is Measurement,' is one of his finest achievements. In 1883 he was elected a full member of the Royal Water-colour Society. The chief of his later works are 'The Ornithologist,' 1873; 'Jolly Post Boys,' 1875; 'The Apothecary,' 1876; 'The Gentle Craft,' 1883; 'The Professor,' 1883; 'A Good Story,' 1885; 'The Hermit and Pelicans,' 1888; 'News in the Village,' 1889; 'An Odd Volume,' 1894. In 1889 and again in 1890 he delighted the art-loving world with exhibitions of birds at the rooms of the Fine Art Society in Bond Street; but it is not only on these that his reputation depends. The best of the subject-pieces are equally good of their kind. All his oil paintings are in pure colour, and their freshness of hue shows at present no diminution. His land and sea scapes in watercolours also have notable serenity and breadth. His favoured resort was the Suffolk coast, and he painted many scenes round Southwold and Walberswick.

In 1896, on account of failing health, he joined the 'retired' Academicians. He died at St. Edmund's Terrace, Primrose Hill, on 9 Jan. 1898, and was buried in Hampstead cemetery. He was twice married: first, in 1856, to Helen Drysdale; and secondly, in 1893, to Mary Harriet Kempe.

A some what rambling autobiography which Marks wrote in his latest years appeared after his death, under the title 'Pen and Pencil Sketches,' 2 vols. 1894. His portrait was frequently painted. A half-length showing the profile painted by Mr. Ouless may be considered the best. Another portrait was by Calderon. A water-colour drawing by Mr. Herkomer, done at one sitting, is exact as a likeness and splendidly drawn.

 MARRYAT, FLORENCE, successively and  (1838–1899), novelist, born at Brighton on 9 July 1838, was sixth daughter and tenth child of Captain  [q. v.] and his wife Catherine, daughter or Sir Stephen Shairp of Houston, Linlithgowshire. She was educated at home, and was always a great reader. On 13 June 1854, at the age of sixteen, she married at Penang T. Ross Church, afterwards colonel in the Madras staff corps, with whom she travelled over nearly the whole of India. She had by him eight children. She outlived him, and in 1890 married, as her second husband, Colonel Francis Lean of the royal marine light infantry.

Her first novel, 'Love's Conflict,' written to distract her mind in the intervals of nursing her children with scarlet fever, appeared in 1865. Between that date and the