DUNCAN GRANT (SCOTTISH, 1885-1978)

In 1928 Duncan Grant began frequent visits to his and Vanessa Bell's rented house, La Bergre, at Fontcreuse, just north of the port of Cassis on the French Mediterranean coast. Grant painted the view from his upper studio window and from the terrace below, which looked across the fields and vineyards to the sea. A group of patels from 1928 is notable for inventive colour and fluent calligraphic handling. A pastel of the same size and date of nearby trees and farm buildings, is in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, and the same view as the present work can be seen in his well-known painting Window, South of France (Manchester City Art Galleries).