Duncan Grant

(1885- 1978)

Duncan Grant was a British painter and designer, and a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, known for his work across painting, textiles, ceramics, and theatre design. His practice combined a strong sense of colour and composition with a sustained engagement with the human figure and decorative form. Grant studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and travelled widely in Europe, where he encountered the work of Cézanne and Matisse, influences that shaped his approach to structure and colour. Much of his life and work was centred at Charleston in Sussex, a key site of Bloomsbury activity. In 1972, Grant was invited by Stanley Jones to work at the Curwen Studio to make work for the Observer, despite initially describing his own “total ignorance of printmaking.” During this period he produced a small group of lithographs, including Standing Woman, working closely with Jones and the studio team. The experience marked a late engagement with printmaking, in which his established approach to form and line was translated into lithography. Duncan Grant went on to produce three prints at the Curwen Studio during which he became so much ‘part of the staff’ recalled Stanley Jones.