Duncan Grant

Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Grant was born on 21 January 1885 to Major Bartle Grant and Ethel Isabel McNeil.

About Duncan Grant in brief

Summary Duncan GrantDuncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Grant was born on 21 January 1885 to Major Bartle Grant and Ethel Isabel McNeil in Rothiemurchus, Aviemore, Scotland. His father was a poverty-stricken major in the army, and much of his early childhood was spent in India and Burma. He attended St Paul’s School, London, 1899-1901, where he was awarded several art prizes. In the winter of 1904–5 Grant visited Italy where, commissioned by Harry Strachey, he made copies of part of the Masaccio frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. In 1908, Grant painted a portrait of John Maynard Keynes, who he had met the previous year, while the two were on holiday in Orkney. A year later, the pair would share rooms on Belgrave Road. In 1909 Grant visited Michael and Gertrude Stein in Paris and saw their collection that included paintings by, among others, Picasso and Matisse.

In June 1910 Grant exhibited with the Alpine Club at the Alpine Gallery. Later that year Grant was invited by Roger Fry to contribute to the redecoration of the dining room at the Polytechnic, London. He died in London on 17 June 1913. He is buried in the Waverley Cemetery, near Chiswick, London, with his wife, the former Lady Grant, and their two children, the latter of whom he never met. His son, John Grant, is a well-known artist and the son of Sir John Peter Grant, 12th Laird, KCB, GCMG, sometime Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. Grant is also the first cousin twice removed of John Grant,. 13th Earl of Dysart. Grant was also a friend of the painter Paul Cézanne, and was said to be particularly interested in the paintings of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse and Gogh.