Duncan Grant

The Artist, by whom bequeathed to Paul Roche, and thence by descent to Martin Roche

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2025

In May 1935 Duncan Grant rented a spacious studio with adjacent accommodation at 33 via Margutta in Rome. This was in the historic artists’ quarter where for example the painter Filippo De Pisis was a friendly neighbour who had borrowed Grant’s London studio in Fitzroy Street. For the following four months or more Grant worked on his substantial commission from Cunard to paint three large panels for the Queen Mary liner. He took occasional rests from this arduous work; the present dramatic still life was painted in one such break. Few other easel paintings are known from this period. The handling of paint and the austere composition mark a note in Grant’s development, being generally less fluent than before and carried out in a more restricted palette.

Richard Shone