DUNCAN GRANT PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY
DUNCAN GRANT
British, 1885–1978
BIOGRAPHY
Duncan Grant began studying at the Westminster School of Art in 1902 and remained there for two years. He visited Italy from 1904–1905 and studied at the Académie de La Palette under Jacques-Emile Blanch from 1906-1907. He stayed in Italy once again before returning to Paris in 1909, when he was able to see Leo and Gertrude Stein’s collection of works by Picasso and Matisse; he also visited the studios of Picasso and Matisse. He travelled to Greece in 1901 and visited Tunis and Sicily in 1911. He is recognized as a versatile artist who produced many diverse works that include not only paintings but decorated rooms, painted murals, decorated objects and stage decorations for plays such as Jacques Copeau’s production of Twelfth Night.
Grant was strongly influenced by Roger Fry’s Post-Impressionist exhibitions in 1910 and 1912, and in 1913 he became a director in Fry’s Omega Workshops; in addition he became a member of the London Group. He was a longtime companion of Vanessa Bell and with each other they notably decorated the walls and furniture of Charleston House in Firle, Sussex, where they resided. While there, Grant decorated the church at Berwick, near Firle, with Quentin Bell. Grant painted the Crucifixion and the Four Seasons on a screen. During World War I, he was a dutiful objector, but in World War II he worked as an Official War Artist. The Tate Gallery organized a retrospective of his work in 1959 although he was active until the 1970s.
Museum Collections:
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Portrait Gallery, London
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Tate Gallery, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London