DUNCAN GRANT (1885-1978)

In 1914 Grant painted a large interior with figures called The Kitchen. Partly reworked circa 1917 (when it was shown in a group exhibition at the Omega Workshops), it entered the collection of John Maynard Keynes and is now at King’s College, Cambridge. In the foreground is a woman with a rather alarmed seeming baby in her arms. The present work is almost certainly a preliminary idea for these figures (one or two others were in the artist’s estate). While it is easy to detect references here to Modigliani’s drawings (one of which Grant bought from Nina Hamnett circa 1913-14) and the sculptural heads of Brâncuși (three of which were shown in London in July 1913), Grant’s individual schematic style is fully in evidence.

Captain Crawford Flitch (1881-1946), was a writer on art, Spain, Mediterranean food and ballroom dancing and had a small collection of Modern British works (by Henry Lamb, J.D. Fergusson, Augustus John and others), some of which were sold in these Rooms in June this year. Flitch had been a near-contemporary of J.M. Keynes at King’s College, Cambridge, and may have made contact with Grant through Keynes. Another point of contact might have been Henry Lamb who made a portrait drawing of Flitch in 1909. (see lots 105 and 106) Grant showed no drawings of this kind at the time and its acquisition by Flitch must have been a personal transaction.

We are very grateful to Richard Shone for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.