Landscape study for 'The Baptism'

Details

Duncan Grant (1885-1978)
Landscape study for 'The Baptism'
oil on canvas
18 x 14 in. (45.7 x 35.6 cm.)
Painted circa 1919.

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 8 February 2011, lot 389, where purchased by the present owner.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Albany Bell

abell@christies.com +44 207 389 2738

Lot Essay

Grant’s substantial painting The Baptism (see F. Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography, London, 1997) was worked on in 1919, the artist intending to show it in his first solo exhibition in January 1920. He did not finish it in time and it remained at Charleston for many years. It is not known whether the present work was a study made specifically for the Baptism or – more likely – a work of the same period which Grant adapted for the scene of male figures around Christ with water rather than earth in the foreground and angels floating in the trees. By the time Grant had finished the painting, little was left visible of this initial landscape study.

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

More from Modern British Art

View All