Duncan Grant (1885-1978), Artist

Sitter associated with 28 portraits
Artist of 9 portraits
Painter and decorative artist. Grant studied at Westminster School of Art and in Paris with Jacques-Emile Blanche. In 1909 he shared rooms in Fitzroy Square with Maynard Keynes, and struck up a close friendship with his neighbours Virginia Stephen (later Woolf) and her brother Adrian. These connections provided Grant's entry to the Bloomsbury circle. Profoundly influenced by Roger Fry's two Post-Impressionist exhibitions in 1910 and 1912-13, he gravitated away from realistic depiction, experimenting increasingly with a non-literal use of colour. Grant was a co-director of Fry's Omega Workshop and was celebrated for his designs for decorative schemes and textiles.