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OSSIP LUBITCH (Russian, 1896-1990) CIRCUS MINSTRELS Signed, watercolour on paper, backed onto a canvas on a stretcher 96 x 129.5cm. Provenance: A wedding gift from the artist to the vendor's paternal grandfather, Lazare Chpolansky. Yehiel (Lazare's brother) and Lubitch met whilst studying at The Grekov Art School in Odessa. They both worked in Paris in the early 1930's and had studios in Montparnasse. Lubitch became a regular guest at the Chpolansky home in Le Visenet. In 1942, the Chpolansky brothers were sent to Drancy transit camp. Lubitch was also interned at Drancy until the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. Tragically, Lubitch's dear friend, to whom he had given this picture and who had been later transferred to Auschwitz, did not survive the Holocaust. The painting remained with Chpolansky's widow and came to England in the 1960s. It has since passed by descent to the current owner.