*DUNCAN GRANT (1885-1978) 'Marseilles Harbour'
(19)29, depicting a view of the Old Port (Vieux Port), signed and dated lower right, oil and gouache on board, 36cm x 46cm
Provenance: Purchased for £30 from The Redfern Gallery, Bond Street, London, January 1931, by Kerrison Preston Esq., and sold with a letter from the gallery.
| Condition Report: |
click here
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| Estimate: |
£5,000 - £10,000
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Hammer price:
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£15,000 |
Bidding ended. Lot has been sold.
Duncan Grant travelled extensively around Provence between 1927 and 1938. Like other members of the Bloomsbury Group, Grant was influenced by the French Post-Impressionists, with fellow Bloomsbury artist Roger Fry famously coining the term for his inaugural exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in 1910.
Accordingly, 'Marseilles Harbour', with its loose brushstrokes and expressive use of colour, echoes the preoccupations of the original Post-Impressionists, who sought to push the boundaries of artistic representation beyond the naturalism of their Impressionist forebears.
Grant's simplified treatment of the boats in the foreground - and that of the buildings beyond - also brings to mind Fry's modernist theory of formalism, in which the subject matter of a painting was subordinated to its stylistic effects. These considerations demonstrate Grant's clear contemporary relevance in the late 1920s.
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