Boys Leapfrogging

Details

Duncan Grant (1885-1978)
Boys Leapfrogging
oil on canvas
21 x 29 in. (53.3 x 73.7 cm.)
Painted in 1962.

Provenance

with Mercury Gallery, London.

Literature

R. Shone, Bloomsbury Portraits (revised edition), London, 1993, pp. 248-251.

Special Notice

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Lot Essay

This is a full compositional study for a very large painting (approx. 8 by 12 ft.) of men leapfrogging, begun in c. 1964. It was developed from studies of models, drawn and painted in Grant’s studio at Charleston. The beach setting was at some point substituted for the simple light walls of a gymnasium. A compositional study for the figures (with five rather than the four in the present work) in this new setting, carried out in pastel, is still at Charleston. In 1968 Grant had perhaps a final go at finishing the painting and brought it to a fairly complete state. But it had become a burden to him and its surface re-painting was unattractively laboured. It was finally turned to the wall and by c.1970 was stored elsewhere in the house. It was destroyed after Grant’s death in 1978. The present study and the Charleston pastel are reminders of its lively early conception.

We are very grateful to Richard Shone for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot and lot 81.

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