Roger Fry

The canvas has a wax lining but now appears to be providing a good sound support. The paint surface which appears to have been quite dry and fragile before the wax lining was carried out, shows evidence of scattered minor cracking and flaking particularly in the upper part of the picture. However, the paint surface now appears to be entirely sound and stable throughout. Inspection under UV light is unfortunately hampered by the masking effect of the varnish layer. Presented in a decorative 'crackle glazed' painted wooden frame in good sound condition. Ready for the wall.
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Painted circa 1918-19, the unidentified sitter appears to be identical to the model who appears in two works by Duncan Grant, Portrait of a Negro (Coll. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) and West Indian – Fitzroy Street (Private Collection, formerly Jonathan Clark & Co). The first, a pastel, shows the same sitter in a half length format with head resting on his left hand. The second, an oil, which was possibly unfinished, shows the sitter in exactly the same pose, and with the same background, leading one to believe that both that and the present work were executed concurrently, something that is not unusual amongst the Bloomsbury artists.

West Indian sitters are rare in British art at this period, and as we have a reference to Grant painting a black sitter in a letter from Clive Bell to Mary Hutchinson, dated 3^rd October 1918, it may be that this also helps to date the present painting.