Title: Cowper walking in the garden at Weston Underwood

Height 49 cm width 74 cm
Oil on canvas
Henry Stacey Marks (1829-98)
Provenance: bequeathed to Museum, 1928
Museum No. OLNCN 633

Marks was the youngest of the four children of the solicitor and coachbuilder Isaac Daniel Marks. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1851, and in Paris under Francois-Edouard Picot and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853, his work showing the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites. From 1861 to 1862 he wrote for the Spectator under the pseudonym 'Drypoint'. In the 1860s he was also involved in painting furniture for the Gothic Revivalist architect William Burges - whose work can be seen at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

In 1878 Marks backed John Ruskin's case in the Whistler v. Ruskin libel trial. According to Whistler, Marks was 'prepared to stand up and say that he could paint a Whistler Nocturne in five minutes in Court!!'

He is now most widely known for his paintings of birds, capturing their character and humour with uncanny accuracy.