Biography

Born in 1849 at Brightlingsea, Essex, son of Isaac Maskell, a mariner, and his wife Elizabeth née Holden, who married at Brightlingsea on 25 January 1836. His birth name is registered as Mark but when he became an artist added the extra name of Christopher. In 1851 living at Providence Place, High Street, Brightlingsea with his 38 year old mother Elizabeth, a mariner's wife and her children, Elizabeth 15, Isaac 13, Emmanuel 9, George 7, Joseph 6, Abraham 4 and Mark 2 and ten years later 12 year old Mark was described as a 'mariner' now living at Spring Road, Brightlingsea with his elder brother Joseph and their mother who had had a further two children Jacob 9 and Emma 3, all the children were born at Brightlingsea. In 1871 a 'house painter' boarding at 8 Gibson Place, Marylebone, the home of 45 year old widow, Mary Spicer, a nurse. He married, as Christopher Mark at Kensington in 1875, Emma Kennedy and went to Wivenhoe, Essex for a short time before they came to Ipswich where in 1881, an artist living at 2 Taverner's Buildings, 14 St Helens Street, Ipswich with his 41 year old wife Emma, who was born at Paddington, London and two children, Arthur Edwin 5, born Wivenhoe, Essex and Eugenie Helen 4, born at Ipswich and he kept a studio at 40 St Nicholas Street. A regular exhibitor at Ipswich Fine Art Club under C M Maskell and in 1891, as Christopher Mark Maskell, a portrait painter & picture restorer living at 29 Elliott Street, Ipswich with his wife and two children and by 1901, as Mark Maskell, had moved to 4 Newton Street, Ipswich as an artist & picture restorer where he died as Christopher Mark in early 1933.