Bernard Meninsky

Sleeping Woman in a Landscape

c.1945–50

© The estate of Bernard Meninsky

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In Tate Britain

Spotlights: William Blake's Legacy, 1920s-1980s

Free entry

Artist: Bernard Meninsky 1891–1950
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 613 x 1070 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1982
Reference: T03348

Catalogue entry

T03348 SLEEPING WOMAN IN A LANDSCAPE c.1945–50

Not inscribed
Oil on canvas, 24 5/8 × 42 1/8 (61.3 × 107)
Purchased from Blond Fine Art (Gytha Trust) 1982
Prov: The artist's widow; Blond Fine Art
Exh: Bernard Meninsky, Blond Fine Art, June–July 1978 (17, repr.), dated 1943–50; Bernard Meninsky, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, July–September 1981, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry, September–October and Blond Fine Art, October–November 1981 (82, repr.in colour)

The title and date were given by the artist's widow Mrs Nora Meninsky, who feels that this picture could probably be more narrowly dated to c.1946–49. She explained that the inscription of another title on the top canvas turnover must have been made soon after Meninsky's death as it is in her hand. Mrs Meninsky considered this picture to be unfinished but complete. She recalls that Meninsky would often leave a painting for a year or two before reconsidering it and sometimes taking it further, but that in some cases he would then decide that no more work was needed. No drawings for this work have been traced. Mrs Meninsky points out that this is a type of painting in which Meninsky represented an inner world into which he was able to escape in imagination from the day-to-day world around him.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984