Knitting Circle Duncan Grant
The Knitting Circle: Art
Biography,work,bibliography.
Duncan GrantBorn in Rothiemurches, Inverness, Scotland, 21st. January, 1885, died at Aldermaston, 9th. May, 1978.British painter.
Full name: Duncan James Corrowr Grant
He was first brought up in India and Burma where his father was posted as an army officer.
While at St Paul's school, London, he was brought up by his uncle and aunt Sir Richard and Lady Strachey.
He enrolled at the Westminster School of Art in 1902, and he studied briefly at the Slade School of Art in London. He moved to Paris and in 1906 he enrolled at Jacques-Emile Blanche's school, La Palette, and copied paintings in the Louvre. While in Paris he made friends withGertrude Stein.
He travelled withJohn Maynard Keynesto Italy, Greece, and Turkey. They were lovers and this may have been the most significant homosexual relationship for both men.
Murals
In 1911 Duncan Grant worked on his first major commission. Along with other artists he collaborated on a series of murals for the refectory of Borough Polytechnic (later to become London South Bank University) in south London. His two panelsBathingandFootballare in the Tate Gallery, London. The panelBathingshows the progress of a naked man diving, swimming, and climbing into a boat, as if it were a series of photographic exposures. The art critic ofThe Timesthought that the mural could have a "e;degenerative influence on the children of the working classes"e;.Duncan Grant was associated with Roger Fry's Omega Workshops from 1913 to 1919, and later with the London Group.
Through his cousinLytton Stracheyhe became friends with many people in theBloomsbury Group.
Duncan Grant lived with Vanessa Bell for many years at their home at Charleston, an old farmhouse near Firle in Sussex. They collaborated on a number of projects. Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell had a daughter, Angelica.
Duncan Grant achieved a reputation of being a leader of the English Post-Impressionists.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in 1970.
He died at the home of the model and friend Paul Roche at Aldermaston.
A painting of Duncan Grant, dated c1930, by Vanessa Bell is reproduced in black and white inQuentin Bell, (1976)
Photographs of a naked young Duncan Grant are shown inJames Gardiner's "e;Who's a Pretty Boy Then?, (1996), page 81.
Work- James Strachey, an early portrait ofLytton Strachey's younger brother, reproduced in black and white inQuentin Bell, (1976).
- Group of Male Nudes, 1911, (Tate Gallery, London).
- Bathing, 1911, mural panel (228.6 x 306.1 cm) for Borough Polytechnic, (Tate Gallery, London), reproduced in black and white inEmmanuel Cooper, (1994), page 144.
- Football, 1911, mural panel for Borough Polytechnic, (Tate Gallery, London).
- L'Emon Gatherers, 1911, reproduced in black and white inQuentin Bell, (1976).
- Virginia Woolf, 1911.
- The Tub, 1912.
- The Queen of Sheba, 1912.
- Omega Flowers on the Mantelpiece, 46 Gordon Square, 1912.
- Lytton Strachey, 1913, reproduced in black and white inQuentin Bell, (1976).
- Abstract kinetic collage painting with sound, 1914, (Tate Gallery, London).
- The Kitchen, 1914.
- Interior at Gordon Square, c1915, (Tate Gallery, London).
- Vanessa Bell, 1918, (National Portrait Gallery, London), reproduced in black and white inQuentin Bell, (1976).
- Venus and Adonis, c1919, (Tate, Gallery, London).
- Sir Desmond McCarthy, c1938, (National Portrait Gallery, London).
- The Gazebo at Charleston, c1940, reproduced in black and white inQuentin Bell, (1976).
- Sir Desmond McCarthy, c1942, (National Portrait Gallery, London).
- Sir Desmond McCarthy, 1944, (National Portrait Gallery, London).
- Decoration for the Russell Chantry of Lincoln Cathedral, 1950s.
- Flowers, 1956.
- Self-Portrait, 1956.
- Girl at the Piano, (Tate Gallery, London)
- Bloomsbury portraits: Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and their circle, 1976, compiled by R. Shone; Phaidon, 272 pages, ISBN 0714816280,SBU Library Main Bookstock Wandsworth Road library 759.2
- Private: The Erotic Art of Duncan Grant 1885 - 1978, introduced byDouglas Blair Turnbaugh, 1989, The Gay Men's Press, 80 pages, ISBN 0 85449 099-X (hardback).
- Blurb:"e;Wherever Grant went his warm personality won him friends and admirers and he became the adored darling of the Bloomsbury set. He was openly and celebratorily gay, his lovers included cousin Lytton Strachey as well as the twentieth century's most influential economist John Maynard Keynes."e;
"e;In a subtle way Duncan Grant's gay sensibility informs his more public works. But this collection of his private homoerotic fantasy paintings and drawings, bequeathed to Douglas Blair Turnbaigh on the understanding that it would be published, tells the whole story."e;
Bibliography- Elliman and Roll, (1986), pages 86-87.
- Paul Roche, (1982), "e;With Duncan Grant in Southern Turkey"e;, Honeyglen Publishing, 144 pages, ISBN 0907855008 (hardcover).
- Frances Spalding, (1997), "e;Duncan Grant"e;, Chatto and Windus, 454 pages, ISBN 0701134097 (hardcover).
- Frances Spalding, (1998), "e;Duncan Grant"e;, Pimlico, 592 pages, ISBN 0712666400 (paperback).
- Douglas Blair Turnbaugh, (1987), "e;Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group"e;, 192 pages, ISBN 0747501033 (hardcover).
- Simon Watney, (1990), "e;The Art of Duncan Grant"e;, London: John Murrey, 160 pages, ISBN 0719546419.
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administrator@knittingcircle.org.ukFirst uploaded 5th. January, 1999.
Last altered 19th. September, 2005