The Marks Room
The Marks Room is so-named to acknowledge the contribution made by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, which supports the arts and the preservation of the environment, to the refurbishment of 10 Carlton House Terrace.
In this room one can see portraits of
- Donald James Mackay, KT, FBA, 11th Baron Reay
- Arthur James Balfour, KG, PC, FRS, FBA, OM, 1st Earl of Balfour
- Frederic William Maitland, FBA
- James Bryce, OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA, 1st Viscount Bryce
- Richard Burdon Haldane, KT, OM, PC, FRS, FBA, Viscount Haldane
Also on display in this room are portrait photographs of Sir Israel Gollancz, Founding Fellow and Secretary of the Academy 1902-1930, and Peter Brown, Secretary of the Academy 1983-2006.
Anton van Anrooy (1870-1949)
1913, oil on canvas, 59.5 x 49.2 cm, British Academy Collection (presented to the Academy by Sir Charles Wakefield, Bart)
Donald James Mackay, KT, FBA, 11th Baron Reay (1839-1921)
Founding Fellow; President 1902-1907
Born and educated in the Netherlands, where he served in the Dutch Foreign Office, Mackay moved to England in 1875. He served as Governor of Bombay (1885-1890) under Gladstone and as Under-Secretary of State for India under Roseberry (1894-1895). He was actively engaged in educational administration, serving as Chairman of the London School Board (1897-1904) and as President of the Council of University College, London from 1897. Through his connection with the Royal Asiatic Society, he became involved in the movement to establish the British Academy, and was its first President.
Van Anrooy was a Dutch painter and illustrator who settled in London in 1896.
Sir William Orpen (1878-1931)
1919, oil on canvas, 88.5 x 69.5 cm, British Academy Collection
Arthur James Balfour, KG, PC, FRS, FBA, OM, 1st Earl of Balfour (1848-1930)
Founding Fellow; President 1921-28
Born into a political and intellectual family, Balfour was well known as a philosopher before he entered Parliament as a Conservative MP in 1874. He served in Salisbury's cabinet from 1886, and was Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905. He steered the 1902 Education Bill through the Commons, and served on the committees which established Imperial College and granted charters to the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol. As Premier he was primarily concerned with defence issues and foreign policy, and is probably best remembered for the Balfour Declaration (1917), recommending the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. He was the Academy's longest serving President. He declined the Presidency of the Royal Society in 1920.
Orpen was a highly successful and fashionable portrait painter of public figures, although he is probably equally well known as a war artist of the First World War and an official artist at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference, where this portrait was painted. Of Balfour he said, What a head! It put all other heads out of the running. So refined, so calm, so strong, a fitting head for such a great personality.'
Beatrice Lock (Mrs Fripp) (1880-1913)
1906, oil on canvas, 59.7 x 49.5 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London © National Portrait Gallery, London
Frederic William Maitland, FBA (1850-1906)
Founding Fellow
After work at the Bar combined with study of early English legal materials, Maitland pursued an academic career as an historian of law. He published Bracton's Note Book (1887), and edited numerous volumes for the Selden Society, which he helped found. He is best known for the History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (1895), co-authored with Sir Frederick Pollock, the centenary of which was celebrated by the Academy.
Lock is best known as a painter of miniatures.
Ernest Moore (1865-1940)
1907, oil on canvas, 80.0 x 65.4 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London © National Portrait Gallery, London (given by Viscount Wakefield, 1923)
James Bryce, OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838-1922)
Founding Fellow, President 1913-17
Bryce made his reputation as an historian with The Holy Roman Empire (1864). He was called to the Bar in 1867 and practised in London before returning to Oxford in 1870 as Regius Professor of Civil Law. He entered Parliament in 1880 and remained an MP until 1907, serving in the cabinets of Gladstone, Rosebery and Campbell-Bannerman. In 1907, he was appointed British Ambassador to Washington - he was already well known in the USA owing to the publication of The American Commonwealth (1888). Following his return to the UK in 1913 and subsequent elevation to the Lords, he worked on reform of the Upper House, was involved in the establishment of the League of Nations, and served at the International Court at The Hague.
Ernest Moore studied in Paris and London, and was a painter of both landscapes and portraits.
Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937)
1928, oil on millboard, 97.2 x 73.0 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London © National Portrait Gallery, London
Richard Burdon Haldane, KT, OM, PC, FRS, FBA, Viscount Haldane (1856-1928)
Elected to the Fellowship 1914
Haldane had a successful career at the Bar before being elected a Liberal MP in 1885. As Secretary of State for War (1905-1912), he was responsible for the re-organisation of the British army. In 1924, he became the first Labour Lord Chancellor. He worked with the Fabians on the foundation of the LSE, and served as Chancellor of the University of Bristol. He was co-translator of Schopenhauer and wrote several works on German philosophy.
Born in Budapest, de László had been a successful portraitist in his own country before he moved to London in 1907. He painted several members of the royal family and other members of the aristocracy in the inter-war period, becoming one of Europe's leading portrait painters.