DUNCAN JAMES CORROWR GRANT (1885-1978) Biography
BLOOMSBURY GROUP (c.1904-1930) Biography

Provenance

Leicester Galleries
Redfern Gallery, 1940
Miss Schutte

Description / Expertise

In the spring of 1913 Duncan Grant, Roger Fry and the Bells went to Italy. On the journey Duncan acquired a pair of carnival palettes, which came from a fairground outside Venice and after their return to London were subsequently moved to Charleston in 1916, where they still are today.

Still Life was painted in Duncan Grant's studio in the Spring of 1918. Its brilliant use of colour and choice of subject matter reflect much of the work that was happening at the Omega Workshop after 1913. The decoration on the right of the painting is part of one of the Venetian carnival palettes.

In November 1918 the Omega Workshops held their last painting exhibition at 33 Fitzroy Square which despite its small size attracted favorable reviews. In this show Duncan Grant exhibited a Flower Piece very similar in style and composition to Still Life which was singled out as 'The picture that comes nearest perhaps to complete expression than anything in the room.'(1)


1. Richard Shone, Bloomsbury Portraits, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 1976, page 190