1903 Marcus Rothkowitz is born in Latvia. Fearing their sons will be conscripted, the family emigrates to New York in 1913.

1935 Rothko joins with nine other artists to form the ‘The Ten’, with a mission ‘to protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and literal painting’.

1945 Marries Mary Alice Beistle, his second wife. Five years later Kathy Lynn is born; Christopher follows in 1963.

1959 Has his first one-man show in New York at the Museum of Modern Art.

1969 His Seagram mural paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York are donated to the Tate.

1970 Commits suicide at the age of 66.

He says: ‘I am not interested in the relationship between form and colour. The only thing I care about is the expression of man’s basic emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, destiny.’