Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Bernard Meninsky artist

Bernard Meninsky (née Menushkin) was born to Jewish parents in Konotop, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) in 1891; the family immigrated to England when Meninsky was a baby. He studied at the Liverpool School of Art, and, with scholarships, at the Academie Julian, Paris and the Slade School of Fine Art, London, where he mixed with the so-called 'Whitechapel Boys', including David Bomberg and Mark Gertler. An official war artist in the First World War, Meninsky was also a member of The London Group and the New English Art Club, and a highly respected teacher at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and the Westminster School of Art in London.

Born: 1891 Konotop, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)

Died: 1950 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1891

Other name/s: Bernard Menushkin


Biography

Bernard Meninsky (née Menushkin) was born to Jewish parents in Konotop, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) on 25 July 1891 and immigrated to England with his family at the age of six weeks. The family settled in Liverpool and Meninsky studied at Liverpool School of Art (1906-1911), where he won several awards, including in 1911, a three-month travel scholarship to study at the Académie Julian in Paris; he also took summer courses at the Royal College of Art (1909 and 1910). In 1912 he was awarded a further scholarship to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he mixed with the so-called 'Whitechapel Boys', including David Bomberg and Mark Gertler. In 1913 he briefly worked for Edward Gordon Craig at his theatre school in Florence, before returning to London as a teacher at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Among his pupils was Polish-Jewish émigrée Clara Klinghoffer.

In August 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War, Meninsky enlisted, joining the Royal Fusiliers (42nd Battalion). He was posted in England as a clerk but in 1918 suffered a nervous breakdown, was discharged on medical grounds and held a six-month war artist’s appointment with the Ministry of Information. before being appointed an official war artist by the MOI. In the same year, on Walter Sickert’s recommendation, he was commissioned to ‘paint important pictures representing typical London scenes during and after the arrival of a leave train from the front at Victoria Station’, part of the collection for an unrealised permanent Hall of Remembrance, of which the Imperial War Museum became custodian. In 1918 Meninsky was released from military service for four months, suffered a nervous breakdown and was permanently discharged on the grounds of neurasthenia. He was plagued by poor mental health for the rest of his life. In 1917 he married his first wife, Margaret (Peggy) O’ Connor, who was Catholic, and the birth of his son, Philip, in 1918 led to a series of tender and intimate mother-and-child drawings. These were exhibited in his first solo show at the Goupil Gallery in 1919, establishing his reputation, and subsequently published in 1920 as Mother and Child: Twenty-eight Drawings by Bernard Meninsky, with an essay by art critic Jan Gordon. In 1919 his marriage broke down and Peggy returned to France. In 1920 Meninsky succeeded Sickert as life-drawing tutor at Westminster School of Art. His first visit to the South of France two years later inspired him to paint landscapes and that October The New Age observed that Meninsky stood 'rather apart as a painter. Without very much that is exclusively modern in his outlook, his preferences can yet be seen'. He exhibited regularly with The London Group, to which he was elected in 1919 and showed regularly for the next 20 years, also serving on the hanging committee with Roger Fry during the 1920s and was elected to the New English Art Club (NEAC) in 1923.


In 1927 Meninsky married his second wife, Nora Barezinsky, who was Jewish, and moved to 145 Abbey Road in north-west London, afterwards moving locally to 23 Priory Terrace. In 1935 Meninsky was commissioned by the Markova-Dolin Company to design sets for the ballet David. During this decade he developed a monumental style, exemplified by his illustrations to Milton's poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, published in 1946. During this period, Meninsky was part of a new generation of 'neo-romantics' influenced by Picasso and English visionary landscape artist, Samuel Palmer. His mental health remained poor, and he suffered several breakdowns; Randolph Schwabe and Mark Gertler initiated subscriptions to support him.


After the outbreak of the Second World War forced the closure of the London Art Schools, Meninsky accepted a position at the Oxford City School of Art (where his pupils included German-born émigrée Milein Cosman). He also received a small commission from the War office as an official war artist. He returned to the Central School in 1945. In 1948 he wrote the introduction and selected an exhibition titled ‘The Art of Drawing’ organised by the Arts Council and in February 1949 he was featured on the cover of the first issue of Art News and Review magazine. The profile noted ‘Using a palette which owes something to the Fauves, and through them to the Expressionists, he has created a world of classical dignity and plastic form’. During the 1940s he also participated regularly in group exhibitions of Jewish artists at Ben Uri Gallery.


Bernard Meninsky committed suicide on 12 February 1950 in London, England. His work is represented in many UK public collections including the Arts Council Collection, Ben Uri Collection, Imperial War Museum. and Tate. Since his death his work has featured in many posthumous UK exhibitions, including Jankel Adler (1895-1949), Mark Gertler (1891-1939), Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950) at Ben Uri Gallery in 1957; Bernard Meninsky 1891-1950, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1981); and a major touring exhibition originating at the University of Liverpool which toured to Ben Uri Gallery: A Singular Vision: Drawings and Paintings by Bernard Meninsky (2000-1).

Related books

  • Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson, Uproar: The first 50 years of The London Group 1913-1963 (London: Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 2013)
  • Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall, Whitechapel at War: Isaac Rosenberg & His Circle (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2008)
  • Sotheby’s Olympia London, 20th Century British and Irish Art: Including Works from the Studio of Bernard Meninsky and a Collection of Works by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (London: Sotheby’s, 2005)
  • The Search for Identity: Immigrant Artists in Early Twentieth Century British Art (Doncaster: Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, 2003)
  • David Archer, Aspects of Modern British and Irish Art (London: Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 2002)
  • A Singular Vision: Drawings and Paintings by Bernard Meninsky (Liverpool: University of Liverpool, 2001)
  • Nicholas Usherwood, Modern British Art (London: Offer Waterman, 2001)
  • Ruth Artmonsky, Slade Alumni 1900-1914 (London: Artmonsky Arts, 2001)
  • David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945 (Bristol: Art Dictionaries Ltd., 1998)
  • Denys J Wilcox, The London Group 1913-1939: The Artists and their Works (Aldershot, Scholar Press, 1994)
  • John Russell Taylor, Bernard Meninsky (Bristol: Redcliffe Press Ltd, 1990)
  • Jonathan Blond, Irving Grose, Bernard Meninsky (London: The Belgrave Gallery, 1990)
  • Bernard Meninsky: Paintings, Gouaches, Drawings (Colchester: Minories, c. 1969)
  • Bernard Meninsky 1891-1950 Paintings and Drawings (London: The Arts Council, 1951)
  • Stuart Vincent, ed., Harvest: Volume One: Travel, (London: Castle Press, 1948)
  • John Milton, L’Allegro: II Penseroso (London: Allan Wingate, 1947)
  • Alex Reid & Lefèvre, Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings by Bernard Meninsky (London: Lefèvre Gallery, 1927)
  • Jan Gordon, Mother and Child: Twenty-Eight Drawings by Bernard Meninsky (London: John Lane, 1920)
  • Cyril W Beaumont, Michael Sadleir, eds., New Paths: Verse, Prose, Pictures 1917-1918. Imagism Anthology (London: C.W. Beaumont, 1918)

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Central School of Arts and Crafts (teacher)
  • Liverpool School of Art (student)
  • Ministry of Information (official war artist)
  • NEAC (exhibitor)
  • Oxford City School of Art (tutor)
  • Slade School of Fine Art (student)
  • The London Group (member)
  • Westminster School of Art (tutor)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Crossing Borders, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (2018–19)
  • Uproar: 1913-1963 The First 50 Years of The London Group, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum (2013)
  • Whitechapel at War: Isaac Rosenberg & His Circle, Ben Uri Gallery (2008)
  • The Ben Uri Story from Art Society to Museum, Ben Uri at Phillip's Auctioneers (2001)
  • A Singular Vision: Drawings and Paintings by Bernard Meninsky, touring to University of Liverpool, University Gallery, Leeds, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, Ben Uri Gallery, London Jewish Museum of Art, and Kingston Museum, Kingston-upon-Thames (2000-1)
  • Bernard Meninsky, Belgrave Gallery and Blond Fine Art (1990)
  • Bernard Meninsky 1891-1950: Oil Paintings and Watercolours, touring to Blond Fine Art, Ashmolean Museum and Herbert Art Gallery (1981)
  • Jewish Artists of Great Britain 1845-1945, Belgrave Gallery, London, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Bradford (1978)
  • Bernard Meninsky 1891-1950, Belgrave Gallery, London (1976)
  • Bernard Meninsky, Paintings, Gouaches, Drawings, Minories, Colchester (c. 1969)
  • Exhibition of Paintings by Bernard Meninsky, Adams Gallery (1958)
  • Jankel Adler (1895-1949), Mark Gertler (1891-1939), Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950), Ben Uri Art Gallery (1957)
  • Coronation Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Reception, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1953)
  • Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition,1851-1951, Art Section, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1951)
  • Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Bernard Meninsky, 1891-1950, Arts Council of Great Britain, London (1951)
  • Contemporary Jewish Artists: The Art of Drawing: An Exhibition of Reproductions, Arts Council of Great Britain, London (1948)
  • Bernard Meninsky, Zwemmer Gallery (1948, 1938, 1936, 1934)
  • Ben Uri Gallery (1944, 1946, 1949)
  • Paintings by Bernard Meninsky, St George’s Gallery (1930)
  • Mayor Gallery (1926)
  Bernard Meninsky
   
Ben Uri collection

Bernard Meninsky in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Bernard Meninsky]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Bernard Meninsky] in the Ben Uri Library