Part of a generation of Anglo-Jewish painters that included David Bomberg, Mark Gertler and Jacob Kramer, Bernard Meninsky was born in the Ukraine and as a baby settled with his family in Liverpool. He studied at the Liverpool School of Art, the Académie Julian in Paris and the Slade School of Art in London, where he arrived in 1912. In 1914 he exhibited his work in the London Group exhibition at the Goupil Gallery and at the New English Art Club. Already a renowned figure draughtsman, Meninsky began teaching drawing at the Central School of Art of Arts and Crafts, the start of a highly successful and lifelong career as an art teacher.

His marriage in 1917 and the birth of a son the following year led the artist to produce a series ...